Meta Connect 2026 live: Updates from Mark Zuckerberg's keynote on AI glasses, VR and more

Hello everyone! Welcome to our liveblog of Meta Connect 2026. It's been a busy few weeks, and we're clearly in the thick of tech launch season. But are people excited for more AI and VR? Let us know in the comments below!

If you're wondering what Meta might have up its sleeve today, it's safe to say that AI and VR are on the agenda. I am old (?) enough to recall when Meta Connect used to be about the Oculus headsets and... one odd year, the "metaverse." Have we adopted that term yet?

I'm actually shocked there are already quite a few comments below! Extremely generic user "Your Username" said

"New stuff being announced is great.

But, if it's anything like last year, it ends up being a dud. The Display glasses were never released outside the USA, even though they were promised for early 2026.

Let's hope they learned something there."

Well I think we're anticipating quite a lot more devices today. 

We're about two and a half hours from Zuckerberg delivering his presentation. It appears there are quite a few VR fans genuinely curious what might be unveiled today. For instance, commenter "DirkDiggler" said below:

"I hope they allow a USB-C displayport connection between your PC and the headset. That would be epic and make the PCVR community grow and grow and grow and grow." and another reader DookieJawz has helpfully replied that the feature has been available on the quest for a while, and is available for download via Meta's desktop client. 

Meanwhile, user "Jorge Gottheil" in the comments below said

"I think it would be amazing if the programming of the glasses was possible as open source, for my use case I would need very high definition (like 4k) and fast connection to a MacBook Pro (sports application) or a newer iPhone and run a model with a database against what I am seeing in realtime, with a color HUD...are we anywhere close to that?"

I'll leave it to our VR expert Devindra Hardawar to weigh in shortly, but I have yet to hear about anything like that that isn't a heavy-duty desktop-tied VR headset like the ol' Vive. And that feels a little like outdated information from me.

I was going to take a break from the comments section and tell you all what we sort of think is going to be unveiled today, but there have been some good new ones!

User "Display" said "Meta Display glasses 2! Lighter, thinner, and much better battery life! I don't even care if they don't have a 2nd display yet – obviously that would be sweet, but, I didnt have any eye strain issues, so, make them light and look like the non-displays! And to all the people calling them creepy – Easy. Make the punishment MUCH harsher for people who creep with them. For those of us who use our glasses as a POV camera for memories, don't punish US because there are creeps... Punish the crap out of the creeps so they're less-inclined to creep."

I wonder if there has been enough time for Meta to make new Display glasses. And i do think people are calling this category of devices, not specifically Meta's Display alone, creepy. I think Apple also caught a lot of flak for its Audio Intelligence features two weeks ago.

For all those who are eager to see what Meta might unveil today, we already have quite a good idea of what to expect. From a new "Project Phoenix" headset to smart glasses without cameras, it looks like facewear is definitely on the agenda.

We are now just over an hour away from the keynote and it's just about dinner time here on the East coast. Before we devote our attention to Meta's upcoming announcements, it's worth looking at what the current state of the VR, XR and smart glasses market is like.

These last two years, we've seen an uptick in smart glasses launching. Samsung showed off its Galaxy XR headset at an October event in 2025, for instance, while Google has been talking up its Android XR platform for months. Before that, even, companies like Xreal, RayNeo, Even Realities and more have been hard at work developing heads up displays. While many of these have been around for a long time, this recent flurry of development has felt like a reaction to the positive reception to the Apple Vision Pro.

While smart glasses and VR headsets are still far from common or mainstream, they're no longer something I'd consider the public to be unaware or ignorant of. And as commenter Caylpso points out below, the increased development could lead to these devices finding more useful places in our lives.  

Caylpso: "I enjoyed Meta's as the most comfortable bluetooth headset for meetings that I've ever worn. An audio-only pair of glasses with better battery life would be exactly what I want."

Hello hello! I am just outside the keynote stage waiting for them to open the doors so we can get our seats. As usual, it's very hot in Menlo Park today so I'm happy to be in air conditioning.

I'm in! I have a seat towards the front of the press section, though people are very much still filing in. 

It's common knowledge that Meta Glasses make up a huge chunk of the smart glasses market, but it's also still a leader in VR. While estimates vary on the exact figure, Meta is said to have over 50 percent marketshare in the VR headset market, with its Quest line of headsets has outselling every alternative for many years. Despite (or perhaps because of) its dominant position, we haven't seen new VR hardware from the company in almost two years.

We're just under 10 minutes to go until the keynote is supposed to start. The room has definitely filled up, but there are still plenty of people hanging out close to the stage taking photos and selfies. I wonder if we'll start on time.

Good evening folks! I'll be nerding out on potential VR news alongside Karissa. I have a feeling Valve is really going to regret launching the Steam Frame so close to this event.

And because I just posted that, a countdown has now appeared. About 4 minutes to go!

Get comfy, I think the next hour will be very packed.

1 minute to go! I'm sure Zuck has fully engaged his Human Mode.

The counter has been reset! Suspense.

And light have come down and we're opening with a video, of course. It says "live demo" and appars to be a VR workstation.

Whoa, tons of virtual windows, and that was a very realistic video chat avatar.

And what looks like a VR avatar of Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth appeared briefly before Zuckerberg walked out, notice his tee?

And we're right into personal superintelligence. "The future is for everyone," reads the screen behind Zuck.

Zuckerberg is going right into hyping out Meta's AI agents. He is sounding a little like Evan Spiegel last week saying that people "have a lot of views" about what the future will look like. He is not giving his pitch about how AI will empower everyone and belongs to everyone not just "the few."

"The highest point of superintelligence is creation and invention, not just automation." We sure about that? 

"I am more and more convinced that the reason why Meta exists ... is because we actually believe in people. Building is an act of love," Zuckerberg says. That's one I haven't heard from him before.

Zuck is now giving the rundown on Muse, with a cute little animated Muse avatar smiling behind him. (Fun fact, you can change what your's looks like, mine is a cat.)

Meta believing in people? Oh we're going to fact check that. Did they believe in teenage health with Instagram? With the sensitivity of misinformation during the last few presidential campaigns? Ugh.

I missed the news cycle around Muse's launch, when I saw people talking about this thing it felt like a fever dream. Give your AI agent a cute face, and you won't mind when it completely screws up a reservation, I guess.

Zuckerberg says that Meta expects Meta will make money with Muse over time by taking a small cut of transactions handled by Muse and in the meantime they are giving people a large number of tokens for free to use Muse.

How long have these people actually been using Muse? 

Alexandr Wang, Meta's Chief AI Officer, is now onstage. I can't remember the last time Zuckerberg ceded the Connect stage so quickly after entering. It says a lot about how important Muse/AI is to the company right now.

Can an AI agent get Alexandr Wang a comb?

I will say that Meta was smart to make Muse avatars cute. Wang's is modeled after his own dog. 

The cute robots will destroy us all, Karissa.

Definitely not the Alexander Wang I was expecting. I'm out of the AI loop.

Wang is now doing his best to explain why people might want to use Muse. He says it's saving people real money, "it's a banger," he says.

Wang claims real people have been using Muse to get reduced insurance rates, apparently it knocked someone's internet bill down by $85.

The news that Muse is available on computers gets one sad "Woo" from the crowd.

Onto updates: Muse will be able to control your computer (a handy addition to the Mac app) and it's getting its own email address, which could be useful if you don't want to give it the keys to your email. 

Oh, Muse can now buy anything on the internet via Shopify? I cannot imagine how that can go wrong. We're also seeing stores like Walmart and Best Buy integrate with it as well.

There's also some new shopping partnerships coming via Shopify and PayPaL. There are also a bunch of retailers that will work with Muse, as well as Instacart. This emphasis on shopping and retail makes a lot of sense when you think of what Zuck just said about Muse's business model depending on people actually buying stuff with their agent.

I wonder how much Meta wants to make the AI equivalent of an agentic WeChat for the rest of the world.

I am not looking forward to all of my older relatives who will start playing around with Muse, just because it looks cute.

Wang says that there's going to be a new model out of Meta Superintelligence Lab "soon" but it's just a tease for now.

Zuckerberg is back and we're onto the glasses portion of this keynote. It's like the price is right in here, a giant display of glasses opened up behind Zuck.

On a personal note, my 7-year-old daughter just started wearing glasses for the first time. She loves them! But I'm worried about what happens when smart glasses for teens and kids becomes a thing.

Zuckerberg is giving us his pitch for AI glasses, why the company is betting so big on the form factor. He says the company has also "shifted" its focus to make its devices ready for AI superintelligence. 

We're going to get a live demo of Muse's new voice mode on Meta's AI glasses, this should be interesting.

Zuck is talking to his Muse which, of course, appears to be Roman? It's wearing a toga and name Agrippa. 

Of course Zuck just can't stop making references to ancient Rome.

Zuck is giving his agent a very complex list of tasks and it said "working on sending you options now," I guess we'll find out later how much of that it caught.

You'll be able to change the sound of your Muse's voice, including accents, speed and even things like "sound like a cowboy." We just got another video of cute Muse avatars but I think Meta is really trying to hammer the point that this is a "personal" AI.

Zuckerberg says that Meta is upgrading the built-in AI on its glasses so you can change it to be your Muses's voice and name (that also means we will finally have an alternative to "Hey Meta").

Those Muse voices sound better than I'd expect, but I wonder how many people will start just talking to their devices like this.

Agrippa sounds a bit too aggro, TBH.

This video is giving us a sense of how Muse on Glasses can help with goals and provide more personalized guidance. In this case, it's a custom training plan with real-time feedback.

This became the Nina Marie Daniele show, all of a sudden.

Zuckerberg is talking through privacy, he mentions the recording light and Meta's attempts to address tampering. Meta is also working on private processing for glasses, which will add additional security to certain features. 

All of these privacy features feel like table stakes for AI wearables.

Last year, Meta showed off something called Conversation Focus to help people hear in noisy situations. This year, we're getting a feature called Hearing Enhancement, which is an FDA-cleared hearing aid replacement feature that is meant specifically for people with hearing loss or who are hard of hearing.

I got a chance to try a demo of this feature yesterday (with thick foam earplugs to simulate hearing loss) and it seemed to work very well during my brief time. 

I'm wary of these devices touting health features, as they're often a way to sanitize the bigger issues with them. I'm sure this Hearing Enhancement feature will be very useful to some people, though.

Hearing Enhancement will be coming first to Meta Glasses and will come to other glasses (Ray-Ban Meta, etc.) soon. It costs an additional $149 one-time payment to enable.

Ah, Meta taking the annoying car maker approach to software features.

Now we're moving onto audio glasses. "Without cameras, this opens up a lot of new design possibilities," Zuck says. They also have the longest battery of any of Meta's glasses.

Meta also had to redesign the internal electronic components for one of the new styles, the Clubmaster frames. These glasses are way thinner than other Ray-Ban Meta frames.

Wow, the essence of style.

Personally, I'm far more interested in audio only glasses, just for listening to podcasts and audiobooks all day.

Meta is also updating its regular Ray-Ban Meta line with Gen 3. The Wayfarers are slimmed down, and there are new styles, including aviators. Gen 3 also supports Dolby Atmos for recording audio.

Dolby Atmos spatial audio capture from glasses sounds wild.

That sound you hear is hackers salivating at the opportunity to capture real-time video and audio from whoever they want.

Let's take a moment and consider how weird it is a tech keynote is going deep into classes eyeglass styling.

And the Meta Glasses in Adventurer are getting a price cut, starting at $249. That's a pretty good deal considering Gen 3 Ray-Ban Meta starts at $449. 

(Which one is Kylie.)

We're also getting a new celebrity collab for Meta Glasses with the "Lisa" frames. These are a new style of frame and case and each one comes with a charm inspired by her pets. 

Meta is "finally catching up with demand" for its Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses and will be selling them in more countries, Zuck says.

You too can own a hilariously thick framed pair of glasses for nearly $1,000!

Zuckerberg says "there in one more pair of glasses I want to show you."

Ha, that's the first metaverse mention of today, he says the company decided to focus less on it unless there was a breakthrough. "This is a breakthrough," he says.

He really shouted that.

There they are: Meta VR Glasses. A big cheer in the room from the section I assume is mostly Meta employees. They weigh  about 100 grams and are "much lighter than Vision Pro," Zuck says.

He says it's about the weight of a deck of cards, I feel like there's more hardware coming... 

The VR glasses are the result of more than a decade of work, Zuck says. 

We're watching James Cameron, Palmer Lucky and other folks being wowed by these glasses.

Palmer Luckey cameo in this VR Glasses video is .. interesting!

We see images of a virtual keyboard on a table top. Cameron says he's inspired by them.

Meta VR Glasses have Muse directly integrated into the operating system. The glasses also use hand and eye tracking, ie: no controller necessary.

Zuck claims Meta's CTO has reached 100 words per minute with the VR Glasses' virtual keyboard.

Zuck says that Meta executives have gotten to over 100 wpm on the Meta VR Glasses virtual keyboard. I tried that keyboard briefly and I definitely struggled, but maybe I need more practice (I probably need more practice).

"Cinema. Computer. Console," A screen behind Zuck reads.

Boz is watching an immersive National Geographic video shot in 3D. It appears to be just 180-degrees, like Apple's Immersive Video format. I'm seeing lots of cues from the Vision Pro here.

Boz gave his Muse agent several tasks, and it looks like it heard all of his requests. Now he's playing a new version of Beat Saber made for hand support.

Boz is about to play a new version of Beat Saber in the VR glasses, he says he's playing on "medium" mode. It's one of 75 titles that will be ready when the glasses ship. "VR gaming is alive and well," Boz says.

The entire Quest library is supported with VR controllers, and you'll be able to play Xbox cloud streaming titles too.

The VR glasses will also support the whole back catalog of Quest titles (if you opt for controllers – the glasses are compatible with Quest controllers) and Xbox Cloud Gaming.

A new Immersive Cinema mode in the Disney+ app will have immersive versions of Infinity War and Star Wars Ep. 4: A New Hope. It looks like live sports is going to be a major feature, too.

Meta is adding full-body photorealistic VR holograms. Boz jokes that Meta has finally solved the problem of legs in VR. Holograms are also coming to Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses.

The Hologram Calling feature looks a lot more mature than the Vision Pro's Personas, that's for sure.

Meta VR Glasses will ship this spring for $1299.

Zuck's pitch for the Meta VR Glasses evokes the original Jobs pitch for the iPhone. It's  cinema, a computer and a console. $1,299!

The gasp I just gasped at Mahjong tiles appearing.

So... Very funny that Zuck hasn't mentioned the Meta VR Glasses also require a separate wired computing puck.

Oh great, you trap your Muse in a tiny keychain-sized device.

Oh, we're getting a "one more thing." It's a little puck that looks about the size of an Apple Watch. It's for talking to your Muse agent. Zuckerberg says it's not finalized yet, but we are planning to have it ship "in time for the holidays" in December. They're calling it Muse Charm.

Muse Charm will be invading your privacy soon, folks!

And with that, the keynote has ended. That was a very packed hour.

And we're out. Be sure to check out all of our coverage on Meta's news tonight. I went long on the VR Glasses, they really do feel like the Vision Pro successor Apple gave up on.

Get some rest, Karissa! And thanks for joining us everyone!

Well I certainly wasn't expecting to see Muse Charm but I definitely like it a lot. It feels like a Tamagotchi met an AI wearable. For better or worse?

Meta doesn't have much additional info on the Charm just yet, and here's all it has to say on the Connect blog:

"Muse Charm is a delightful and fun device built for you to talk and interact with your Muse. It brings the power of Muse with a state of the art real-time voice model into a device that fits in your pocket. We'll have more to share later this year."

Frankly of everything Meta announced today I am most intrigued by the Muse Charm and possibly the Lisa edition of the Meta Glasses. More as a fashion item on that latter one than invading the privacy of those around me, of course.

Thanks so much for joining us today on this very late-in-the-day liveblog. You can catch up on all the news from Meta Connect 2026 in our recap article, or if you prefer a by-the-minute blow by blow, feel free to scroll down. 

Karissa has been hard at work writing up her hands-on impressions with the new Meta VR Glasses, Ray-Ban Meta Gen 3 and the holographic avatars coming to the smart glasses. Please send her your nicest vibes, as we send you ours. Thanks again and good night!