Meta smart glasses AI wearables Reality Labs hardware

Meta's Internal Memo Spills the Beans: AI Pendant, Always-On Glasses, and a Corporate Wearables Push

30 May 2026

Meta's internal memo reveals plans to expand its AI wearables lineup, including "supersensing" smart glasses, new eyewear brand partnerships, and an AI pendant set for internal testing by spring 2027. The devices will run on Meta's Muse Spark AI model and an unreleased agent called Hatch, while a new "Wearables for Work" initiative targets corporate customers. Meta also aims to offset hardware losses through software subscriptions and a developer platform, as it races to hit 10 million wearable devices sold in the second half of 2026.

An internal memo from Meta's VP of Wearables, Alex Himel, has found its way to The Information, and it sketches out an ambitious roadmap for the company's hardware division. Three main threads run through it: a new AI pendant headed for internal trials, a broadened smart glasses lineup with persistent sensing capabilities, and an enterprise play called "Wearables for Work" aimed squarely at corporate buyers.

Reality Labs has been haemorrhaging money for years, so none of this is purely about consumer excitement. The strategy is also about finding customers willing to actually pay for the hardware, and businesses fit that bill better than most.

All of it will run on Meta's latest model, Muse Spark, alongside an unreleased AI agent called Hatch, neither of which has been officially announced.

An AI Pendant, Eventually

The pendant is the most speculative piece. The memo reportedly offers no technical specs, though a camera is on the cards. Internal dogfooding is pencilled in for spring 2027, which is not exactly imminent. Meta already bought AI pendant startup Limitless last year, so the acquisition is presumably feeding into whatever this becomes.

Glasses That Watch Everything, All Day

More immediately interesting is the "supersensing" glasses category. The concept involves keeping cameras and sensors running continuously for hours, giving the AI a persistent view of the wearer's day. The pitch is that Meta AI could notice you walked past your keys or prompt you to buy something you mentioned needing. Useful or deeply unsettling, depending on your tolerance for ambient surveillance.

Meta's glasses have so far come exclusively through its EssilorLuxottica partnership, in Ray-Ban and Oakley styles. More brands are coming, both to widen the audience and to improve margins. EssilorLuxottica reported over seven million Meta-powered glasses sold in 2025, and Zuckerberg has been calling it one of the fastest-growing consumer electronics categories around. Himel's internal target is ten million devices sold in the second half of 2026 alone.

Software Subscriptions to Plug the Losses

Hardware margins are notoriously brutal, so Meta is layering on a subscription model. This week the company launched two tiers for Meta AI: Meta One Plus at $7.99 per month and Meta One Premium at $19.99. More compute, longer reasoning, more image and video generation. The same formula OpenAI and Google are running with, applied to glasses. A developer platform for third-party wearable apps is also in the works.

Himel has set a target of 6.8 million monthly active wearable users by the end of this year, with new product launches and geographic expansion as the main growth levers.

The Competition Is Moving Too

Meta is not building in a vacuum. OpenAI spent $6.5 billion acquiring Jony Ive's io Products outfit and reportedly has over 200 people working on a range of AI hardware, including a smart speaker and possibly a phone. Google has announced its own smart glasses in partnership with Samsung and Qualcomm, due later this year.

The AI wearables race is suddenly crowded. Whether any of these products actually justify the investment remains, for now, an open question.