Social media giant Meta has debuted its first pair of augmented reality (AR) glasses, Orion — a futuristic device hailed by the company as “the most advanced glasses the world has ever seen.”

Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, unveiled Orion at the company’s annual Connect developer event earlier this week. The AR glasses are designed to bridge the physical and virtual worlds, centralising human connection and empowering people to be more present and engaged.

While the event also introduced the Oculus Quest 3S virtual reality headset and AI-powered Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, Orion stole the spotlight as the flagship product.

Although detailed specifics about Orion are still emerging, it’s reported to include standard voice prompts, lenses capable of displaying text messages, supporting games and video calls, and tiny projectors built into the glasses’ temples to create a heads-up display.

As far as AR devices and wearable tech go, the teased features of the Orion glasses position it as a standout device in the list of 2024 tech wearables revolution.

Its exceptional portability makes it especially well-suited for daily use — a feature that remains rare among AR devices. 

“Orion is a feat of miniaturisation — components are packed down to a fraction of a millimetre,” Meta noted. “Dozens of innovations were required to design a contemporary form factor that you’d be comfortable wearing every day.”

Zuckerberg also revealed that Orion has been in development for ten years, though it’s not yet available to consumers. “We’re providing Meta employees and select external audiences access to Orion, so we can learn, iterate, and build toward our consumer AR glasses line,” Meta added.

For now, Meta hasn’t hinted at a launch date or price range, which is an indication that Orion is far away from being ready for the consumer market.