Meta plots Oakley smart glasses and HUD specs to take on Apple

Meta is preparing a massive hardware expansion to take its AI beyond your phone screen.

According to a report from Bloomberg, the company is developing a new wave of wearable devices, including Oakley-branded smart glasses for athletes, a higher-end pair with a built-in heads-up display, and early concepts for watches and camera-equipped earbuds designed to rival Apple.

Sport shades and a heads-up display

Meta’s current smart glasses, made with Ray-Ban and internally code-named Supernova, have quietly become one of the company's biggest hardware wins. Now, Meta wants to push that momentum across the portfolio of its partner Luxottica.

The first new addition is an athlete-focused device code-named Supernova 2. Built around Oakley's wraparound Sphaera frames, this model shifts the onboard camera to the center of the frame, specifically catering to cyclists and runners who want first-person action capture without wearing an action cam.

The more ambitious upgrade coming in 2025 is code-named Hypernova. This higher-end pair keeps a silhouette similar to standard Ray-Bans but embeds a small display on the bottom of the right lens. Wearers will be able to glance at incoming notifications, view photos shot by the device, and run basic software apps, bridging the gap toward true augmented reality.

Meanwhile, Meta's holy grail—fully-fledged AR glasses capable of projecting true 3D holograms into the real world—remains on track for around 2027.

Taking aim at Apple Watch and AirPods

Smart frames are only one part of the puzzle. The report reveals that Meta's Reality Labs division is also actively exploring smartwatches and earbuds equipped with cameras, squarely targeting the dominant positions held by the Apple Watch and AirPods.

The goal is simple: give Meta's multimodal AI constant sensory input through cameras, mics, and sensors, turning the AI into a real-time personal assistant that perceives whatever you see and hear.

Meta declined to comment on the unannounced product roadmap.

Why it matters

We think Meta's wearable pivot shows a rare dose of hardware pragmatism. After pouring tens of billions into bulky VR headsets that most consumers rarely touch, Meta realized that people would rather wear accessories that look like regular fashion items.

For everyday consumers, particularly athletes and outdoor enthusiasts, the Oakley collaboration and the subtle heads-up display on Hypernova make practical sense. Getting glanceable directions or quick previews without reaching for a smartphone is an obvious daily convenience.

For the broader tech landscape, this puts real pressure on Apple. While Cupertino dominates wrists and ears, neither the Apple Watch nor AirPods currently have ambient visual intelligence. If Meta can successfully ship camera-enabled earbuds and fashionable display glasses, it could establish the primary interface for consumer AI before Apple ever gets its own glasses off the ground.

That said, putting cameras on ears and faces will inevitably reignite fierce privacy debates. Meta will need to prove that consumers—and bystanders—are actually ready for a world where AI watches everything.