Even people who bought Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses don’t want to use them

Enlarge (credit: Meta)

Even the people who spent money on Meta's Ray-Ban "Stories" smart glasses don't want to use them. That's according to a report this week from the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), citing internal data and claiming to detail the letdowns that led to hundreds of thousands of Stories gathering dust.

Meta (then called Facebook) released Ray-Ban Stories in 2021. The company's first mass-market smart glasses include a Snapdragon chip, two 5 MP front-facing cameras for snapping pictures or video, and speakers for listening to audio. Ray-Ban branding comes courtesy of the glasses' partnership with Ray-Ban parent company EssilorLuxottica (which also makes Oakleys and claims numerous luxury brands, including Burberry, Prada, Swarovski, and Tiffany & Co.).

But according to a February corporate document WSJ says it saw, under 10 percent of Ray-Ban Stories ever purchased are in active use. The publication reported that Meta sold 300,000 Stories, but there are just 27,000 monthly active users of the product.