Meta announces Oakley smart glasses

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Frame Material, Weight, and Comfort

  • Strong focus on how heavy current smart glasses feel vs. normal eyewear, especially acetate vs titanium.
  • Several argue titanium won’t solve comfort: frame weight quickly becomes dominated by batteries and electronics, not frame material.
  • Hollow / sheet-titanium constructions are debated, but posters conclude you can’t get anywhere near the feel of ultra-light 5–10 g titanium frames once you add electronics (Meta glasses are ~50 g).
  • Concern that glasses worn all day irritate nose/ears; many who can avoid glasses do so via contacts or LASIK.

Features, Use Cases, and Lack of AR Display

  • Many are surprised these have no HUD/visual AR; they’re essentially camera + mic + speakers + voice assistant.
  • Use cases praised: low-vision aid (reading labels, locating objects), hands-free photos/video, music, calls, quick voice queries.
  • Some think these (or successors) are on track to replace phones once usable in-glasses displays and better input arrive.
  • Others see them as a niche or phone accessory, not a replacement, due to poor input (voice, gestures), no screen, and limited functionality.
  • Comparisons made to other devices: Even Realities G1, Xreal, INMO, Ray-Ban Meta, upcoming Orion, open-source AugmentOS-based glasses.

Will Smart Glasses Replace Smartphones?

  • Optimists: XR/AR is seen as the next dominant platform, like smartphones vs laptops; glasses plus AI, eye tracking, and new UIs could eventually feel more natural than phones.
  • Skeptics: speech is a bad primary interface, glasses aren’t dramatically more portable than phones, and smartphones already cover almost all everyday needs.
  • Broad agreement that if they “replace” phones, it will be partial and slow, similar to how smartphones partially displaced PCs.

Privacy, Surveillance, and Social Norms

  • Strong pushback on always-on (or always-listening) cameras/mics from an ad-tech company; many say they’d never trust Meta with that feed.
  • Worries about workplace security (screens, secrets), legal issues in strict jurisdictions, and recording people without consent.
  • Some advocate socially ostracizing wearers in public or at least refusing to interact when a camera is pointed at them.
  • Others note that ubiquitous cameras (phones, doorbells, CCTV) are already the norm, though some argue that’s no reason to “make it worse.”

Platform Lock-In, SDK, and AI Choice

  • Frustration that there’s no public SDK: the glasses only do what Meta allows, limiting third-party experimentation.
  • Users want to route the wake-word and camera pipeline to alternative AIs (e.g., ChatGPT), not just Meta AI; current workarounds only treat them as generic Bluetooth headsets.
  • Battery non-replaceability is a deal-breaker for several; they don’t want another sealed, time-limited gadget.

Design, Branding, and Adoption

  • Mixed reaction to Oakley styling: some say these don’t look “Oakley” (too round / generic), others think they look dorky, especially on the CEO.
  • Discussion of Luxottica’s dominance, high margins, and whether style/fashion and youth trends will make or break adoption.
  • Concern that visible camera lenses and dark tints make eye contact harder and increase social friction.