Meta is giving its Ray-Ban Display smart glasses a significant software upgrade, adding new navigation capabilities, a personalized holographic avatar for video calls, a new Explore app and several other features designed to make the glasses more useful as an everyday computing device. The company announced the updates during Meta Connect 2026, while also confirming that the display-equipped glasses are expanding beyond the United States into five additional markets this fall.
Image Courtesy : about.fb.com
One of the most eye-catching additions is a new hologram feature designed to solve one of the limitations of making video calls through glasses. Because the wearer isn't directly visible to the person on the other end of a call, Meta is introducing a photorealistic digital version of the wearer that can appear during calls. Users will create their hologram through a short self-capture process in the Meta AI app, after which the system can generate a digital representation of their face for compatible calls.
Meta says the hologram is driven entirely by the user's voice, with the underlying model inferring facial expressions based on what the person is saying and how they are saying it. The result is intended to give callers something closer to seeing the actual person, even when the wearer is walking around or using their glasses without holding a smartphone. Meta's example shows a person cooking while talking with someone remotely, allowing the other person to see a digital representation rather than simply hearing their voice.
The hologram feature will begin rolling out in Early Access through WhatsApp to Meta Ray-Ban Display users in the United States later this fall. It represents another step in Meta's attempt to make smart glasses useful for communication without requiring users to constantly hold a phone in front of their face.
Navigation is also receiving a major upgrade. Meta Ray-Ban Display already provides heads-up walking directions, but the company is expanding the feature to support cycling directions and public transportation information. Users will be able to ask for directions using their voice and see turn-by-turn cycling instructions or real-time transit departures directly on the glasses' display.
Meta is also changing the way walking directions are communicated. Instead of always relying on conventional street names and intersections, the glasses will be able to use recognizable landmarks in the environment. That means a direction could tell someone to turn left at a yellow house rather than simply instructing them to turn left at a particular street. The goal is to make navigation feel more natural while allowing users to keep their phones in their pockets.
Cycling and public-transit navigation is scheduled to begin rolling out later in September in the United States and Canada.
Meta is also introducing Explore, a new app designed specifically around finding experiences that can be used with the Ray-Ban Display glasses. The company says users will be able to browse a growing selection of experiences through Explore on the glasses themselves as well as through the Meta AI app. Those experiences are expected to cover areas such as learning, exploration and entertainment, giving developers another avenue for creating software specifically for Meta's display-equipped eyewear.
The company is also expanding the glasses' ability to function as a personal information screen. Calendar functionality will allow users to see who is attending a meeting, accept or decline invitations and join meetings directly from the glasses. Meta is additionally preparing mirrored phone notifications, which will allow selected notifications from a smartphone to appear directly on the Ray-Ban Display screen. Users will be able to control which notifications are displayed rather than having everything automatically mirrored.
Threads is also being integrated into the experience through Community Feeds. The feature is designed to allow users to follow curated real-time feeds and repost Threads content directly from their glasses, giving the device another way to provide information about what's happening around a particular topic or community.
Meta is also highlighting the glasses' capabilities for capturing immersive media. The company says its AI glasses are the first consumer devices capable of capturing and experiencing video in Dolby Atmos with 360-degree spatial sound. Rather than simply recording conventional stereo audio, the glasses can capture spatial sound that can be experienced in a more immersive way during playback.
The new features arrive as Meta prepares to expand Ray-Ban Display beyond the United States. The glasses are now coming to the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Italy and Germany, giving consumers in five additional countries access to the company's display-equipped smart-glasses platform.
The rollout is happening in stages. Online ordering and retail sales begin in Canada and the United Kingdom, while preorders are beginning progressively in France, Italy and Germany. Online ordering and retail availability in France, Italy and Germany are scheduled to begin October 13, with retail locations in cities including Paris, Milan, Rome, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Munich. Prescription availability will also expand, with Rx options beginning October 13 through EssilorLuxottica optical retail stores in France and Italy and arriving later in Germany.
Meta is also introducing online ordering for the Ray-Ban Display in the United States, making it easier for customers to purchase the glasses without relying solely on physical retail locations.
The international expansion comes after Meta previously delayed plans to bring Ray-Ban Display to several international markets. Earlier in 2026, the company paused its planned expansion outside the U.S., citing unusually high demand and limited supply. At the time, Meta said waitlists had extended well into the year.
With the latest updates, Meta is positioning Ray-Ban Display as more than a pair of smart glasses with a small screen. The combination of navigation, notifications, calendar tools, social feeds, immersive video capture, dedicated applications and AI-powered communication features gives the glasses a growing collection of functions that traditionally require a smartphone.
The holographic calling feature may ultimately be one of the more unusual additions because it changes what a video call can look like when the person making the call isn't actually holding a camera. Instead of forcing users to stop what they're doing and position a phone correctly, Meta's system can create a digital representation of them while they continue using the glasses hands-free.
As Meta expands Ray-Ban Display into five new markets and continues adding software capabilities, the company is increasingly treating the glasses as part of a broader shift toward wearable computing. The latest features show Meta's continued effort to make information, communication, navigation and entertainment available directly in a user's field of view without requiring them to reach for a traditional screen.