Meta Connect 2026 live blog: Muse, Ray-Ban, VR Glasses

Live coverage of Meta's Connect 2026 keynote, updated today.

At Connect 2026 this week, Meta stopped selling virtual reality as a destination and started selling Muse, its AI agent, as the connective tissue running through its glasses lineup and an upcoming VR device. This isn't a retreat from VR. It's an attempt to make one assistant follow a person from their phone to their face to a headset. This Meta Connect 2026 live blog sorts out what's actually shipping this week from what's still a promise for later this year or 2027.

Muse itself launched two weeks ago as a personal AI agent that can book travel, fill out forms, and negotiate on a user's behalf, free for most uses with paid tiers for heavier use (Meta).

At Connect, CEO Mark Zuckerberg called Muse the centerpiece of the company's broader pivot from the metaverse toward AI (Social Media Today). Meta said the assistant is now live in Canada as well as the United States, with glasses integration described as coming soon.

Alongside that pitch, Meta introduced Ray-Ban Meta Audio, a third-generation Ray-Ban Meta, updates to Meta Ray-Ban Display, and Meta VR Glasses. The wearables lineup now ranges from $249 for entry-level glasses to $1,299.99 for the VR headset, according to Engadget's rundown of everything announced at Meta Connect 2026 (Engadget).

Meta Connect 2026 live updates: what Muse can already do

Muse is the clearest case of something shipped rather than teased. It's been running in the U.S. on iOS, Android, and muse.ai since its launch two weeks ago, reachable through a dedicated app or directly in WhatsApp, and Meta says it has now expanded into Canada as well (Meta; Social Media Today).

Rather than only answering questions, Muse completes tasks. It opens a browser, fills out forms, and checks out through Stripe's Link, generating a one-time-use virtual card so a shopper's real card number never gets exposed. Purchases carry Link's buyer protections, including price-drop refunds and no-fee returns (Meta).

Security splits across two systems. Muse runs inside a dedicated Secure VM, while a separate Sentinel agent has to clear anything that reaches the internet and checks with the user before sensitive actions like sending an email or making a purchase (Meta).

Meta also built in user-facing controls. People choose which apps Muse connects to and how much access it gets, can disconnect a service at any time, see a full audit trail of what Muse has done and plans to do, and can opt out of having their interactions train Meta's AI models (Meta).

The boldest privacy claim in Meta's pitch, a Muse Confidential VM encrypted with a key that Meta says even it can't access, is explicitly slated for later this year. It isn't something users have today (Meta).

Muse's existing footprint is the base Meta is building everything else on. The company says Muse is coming to its AI glasses for hands-free task and calendar help, and it has already integrated a Meta AI agent directly into the VR Glasses operating system, though both expansions are described as coming soon rather than shipped (Meta; Meta).

Meta's glasses lineup, from $249 to $799

Four product groups make up the news here: Ray-Ban Meta Audio, Ray-Ban Meta Gen 3, the Meta Glasses collection, and Meta Ray-Ban Display, spanning audio-only to display-equipped devices. Meta says its full catalog across Ray-Ban, Oakley, and Meta Glasses will pass 100 options by the end of the year (Meta).

(Sources: Meta; Meta; Engadget)

The Audio model skips a camera entirely. Meta is positioning the audio-only glasses as a way around concerns tied to camera-equipped devices (Social Media Today).

Gen 3 keeps its 12-megapixel camera and adds AI features on top (Meta). The Adventurer, part of the broader Meta Glasses collection, starts at $249 with a plug-in case, the company's most affordable AI glasses price yet, and the collection is expanding into Singapore, South Korea, Mexico, and the UAE (Meta).

Meta Ray-Ban Display sits above both, and its newest features aren't all live yet. Hands-free cycling and transit navigation, which uses landmarks instead of street names for directions, arrives later this month in the U.S. and Canada. Hologram video calling, a photorealistic real-time avatar for calls, gets early access on WhatsApp in the U.S. later this fall (Meta).

Muse is coming to the glasses lineup too, framed as hands-free help with tasks, calendars, and habits, though Meta describes this as an upcoming capability rather than something shipping alongside the hardware today (Meta). A hearing-enhancement feature is rolling out in stages: Meta Glasses in the U.S. gets it later this year, with Gen 3 and Audio following. It costs $149 after a 30-day trial, comes bundled with a Meta One subscription, and qualifies for FSA and HSA reimbursement (Engadget).

Meta describes the Audio model specifically as built for all-day wear, a phrase it doesn't apply to Gen 3 in the same terms. Audio claims up to 12 hours against Gen 3's nine, and both figures come from Meta's own testing rather than an outside lab (Meta; Engadget).

Smaller updates rounded out the lineup news: new Meta Glasses styles designed with LISA, a limited-edition Meta Fury frame, and Mix & Match customization at Meta Lab stores (Meta).

Meta VR Glasses: a lighter frame, a tethered trade-off

Meta VR Glasses arrived at Connect as a preview, not a near-term product. At around 100 grams, they're five times lighter than the Meta Quest 3 headset, a reduction Meta achieves by moving compute, battery, and storage into a tethered puck and leaving the frames to handle only sensors and the display (Meta).

The frames use a 5K micro-OLED display Meta says delivers 37 pixels per degree, paired with pancake lenses built specifically for the device and a magnesium-alloy build. The puck runs on Qualcomm's new Snapdragon Reality Elite chip (Engadget; Meta).

Meta frames the device as a workspace as much as a media player. It connects to Windows PCs and Macs, turns any flat surface into a virtual keyboard and touchpad, and keeps full-color passthrough so a desk and phone stay visible while wearing it (Meta).

It also supports hologram video calling across existing apps like WhatsApp and Zoom, and streams through Xbox Cloud Gaming, though Microsoft is imposing new time limits on that service, per Engadget. More than 75 games are playable using hand gestures alone at launch, alongside Touch Plus controller support for the existing Quest library (Meta; Engadget).

Content partnerships reinforce the entertainment pitch. Disney+ 3D titles arrive in November in select countries, Meta says the device is the first IMAX Enhanced-certified VR headset, and once the glasses ship, deals with MLB, NBC Sports, TNT Sports, and UFC are meant to bring more than 100 live sports events a year (Meta).

Meta set the price at $1,299.99, with sales starting in spring 2027. The puck is rated for up to three hours of continuous high-resolution playback on a charge, with 45W fast charging to top it back up (Meta). Meta calls the device controller-free, even as it confirms Touch Plus controller support for existing Quest titles, so hands-only use won't cover every case. Comfort, passthrough latency, and real-world battery life outside Meta's own numbers remain untested by anyone outside the company.

What's next

Zuckerberg closed the keynote with a brief look at Muse Charm, a keychain-sized device still in development that Meta says packs the full Muse experience, including real-time voice and an avatar, into a form factor separate from glasses (Engadget; Social Media Today). Meta hasn't set a release date and says it will share more details later this year.

That preview points to where Meta wants Muse to go: everywhere, not just on a phone screen. Whether it gets there depends on questions this week's keynote didn't answer. There's no independent security audit of the Secure VM Muse runs on, and none of Meta's demos showed how reliably the agent completes real bookings and purchases outside a stage setting. Those answers, whenever they arrive, will matter more than any spec sheet from this week's event.