(Credit: Will Greenwald)
Meta’s top-tier Ray-Ban Display augmented reality smart glasses offer impressive hardware, but PCMag’s review found the software limited, with too many ties to Meta’s own apps. That may soon change with third-party developers getting involved.
Meta announced several new features this week, including the option for developers to build their own services. There aren't any third-party apps available yet, as this is the initial launch of tools, but the rollout lets developers jump in and build all-new Web Apps using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. You can then access any new tools on the smart glasses through a URL, rather than downloading software from a storefront.
Meta suggests apps could include "games, transit tools, cooking guides, grocery lists, instrument practice, and more.”
The social media giant is also offering developers a way to port existing apps to the display through its Wearables Device Access Toolkit. It says the tools let developers reuse user interface components such as buttons, images, text, and video playback, making it faster for them to build.
If you own the glasses, you immediately get a new wave of Meta-produced features, including the previously promised “neural handwriting” for interacting with Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, and other messaging apps on Android and iOS. Using the neural wristband, you can use gestures in the air to write responses by hand.
Meta now offers live captions through the glasses for WhatsApp and Messenger, while Instagram gets similar functionality, but it’s limited to voice messages. Other new tools include display recording, capturing a video of what you see through the glasses, your audio, and anything on the in-lens display, all in one clip to share on social media.
For navigation, Meta is also adapting its walking directions, which are now available “throughout the entire US” and in major European cities like London, Paris, and Rome.