Facebook to Release Smart Glasses Next Year

Facebook announced its first pair of consumer “smart glasses” will be releasing next year as a branded Ray-Ban product, according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Facebook is partnering with luxury eyewear brand Luxottica, and its new smart glasses will have Ray-Ban branding. Zuckerberg explained that the Luxottica partnership will help accommodate a variety of styles and preferences people would have for the glasses.

The company was tight-lipped on what the actual feature set of the new product would be, but did confirm to media outlets like TechCrunch that the glasses would not include a heads-up display, nor would they be classified as AR devices, leading analysts to speculate that they would be more like Snapchat’s Spectacles, than Google Glass.

On other hand, it detailed a project at last year’s Oculus Connect conference it calls Live Maps, which the company reported will be integral to help people use AR glasses in the real world by helping blend the virtual and real. That way, AR glasses can “download the most recent data from the 3D map, and then only have to detect changes like new street names or the appearance of a new parking garage, and update the 3D map with those changes.

Later, Facebook launched its Facebook Gaming app for iOS primarily an app used to watch streamers play video games, but removed the app’s mini games feature to pass Apple’s strict App Store approval process.

According to Facebook, the Gaming app rejected multiple times by Apple in recent months. The company reported that Apple cited App Store guideline 4.7 to justify the rejections, claiming the primary purpose of the Facebook Gaming app is to play games.

The new app is primarily used to watch streams of games, much like Twitch is used on both iOS and Android. But on Android, the app also includes a number of mini games from Facebook’s Instant Games platform. That’s what Apple won’t allow.

On other hand, last week in an antitrust hearing before a congressional subcommittee, Apple CEO Tim Cook was accused of harming competition in the App Store, and Microsoft’s Project xCloud app has faced similar challenges to Facebook’s.