Léonie WatsonI finally got around to jotting down a few notes on using my Ray-Ban Meta Glasses:
https://tink.uk/using-ray-ban-meta-glasses/
Jakob Rosin@tink This is a very nice review. Thanks. Here's hoping that Meta will eventually bring the AI to all EU countries, just not a select few.
@jakobrosin It is possible to use it even in countries where it's not available, but it takes a bit of effort... 1/2
@tink Just fyi, at least the hack you described yesterday seems not to work in all cases. Wether it is due to my phone having additional meta apps (facebook and instagram) which are logged in to my Estonian account, or something else, but even when the region, language and VPN are set to UK, after downloading the app, on the first welcome screen it says that Meta AI is not available in your region. And it doesn’t become available sadly either. I’m in paris tomorrow, so I will get a chance to test wether it would work if my physical everything is in a supported country.
@jakobrosin Oh. Ugh. What a pity. Here's hoping it'll come to you soon.
@jakobrosin Change your phone to use a region where Meta AI is available (UK or US for example), use a VPN and set it to connect through the same region. Download the Meta AI app and proceed. Keep the VPN connected or reconnect it at least once a week to retain availability of Meta AI.
I used it like this for a few months until Meta AI became available in the UK. 2/2.
@tink Thanks. I will give it a go again. I tried the VPN trick around october, and.it retained the AI for a day after the VPN. So, constantly resetting and reconfiguring would've been rather big hassle with that rate. But if that worked for months, I can work with that.
@jakobrosin Ugh. That does sound like a pain. I just left my VPN running, and only disconnected it from time to time to update my other apps. It seemed to do the trick at any rate.
@tink I usually vpn to my home to disable ads via pihole, but I will experiment. Maybe it just needs an occasional ping to think its in UK.
@tink The silly thing is, that Meta says the AI is available in Finland. I am in Estonia. Finland is about 80 kilometres away. People can see finland from higher areas from here And we need to do that dance to get access to this feature.
@jakobrosin @tink How much for an 80KM USB cable?
Drew Mochak@jakobrosin @Scott @tink It won’t connect via standard USB, it needs a pogo connector. I realize you weren’t serious but I can’t resist emparting useful information.
Vayia M@tink Very interesting, thank you for sharing!
@tink Mine have turned out to mostly be an expensive gadget that gets deployed during washing dishes, but in a way that's hard to explain, somehow I still don't regret the purchase yet.
@Scott Please do try to explain... I wear mine when washing the dishes because I listen to a book to pass the time, but I hadn't thought about using them to... check the dishes are clean? Look out of the window? I'm curious now! 😊
@tink Think I might've accidentally gotten your hopes up with wonky grammar. I only meant hard to explain as in, somehow I don't regret the purchase even though I'm not using these for anything I couldn't already do with a bone conduction headset before owning them. They either play podcasts or connect to whoever I'm complaining about washing dishes to at the time. There is a window right in front of me and I hadn't thought to ask what's on the other side of that yet lol. Who knows, maybe that'll be the turning point.
@Scott Heh. Love a bit of wonky grammar 😂
@tink This sparked enough curiosity that I've been to check what's outside the kitchen window. A brick building and another window, possibly that of a neighbour. It couldn't see in (don't even try telling me your next question would've been something different). I asked whether there was anything interesting it could tell me about out there, any sign of movement at all? It said no, the scene is calm and totally still. Naturally I checked whether it was the aftermath of a nuclear appocalypse, and it reassured me that although such a scenario would involve a lack of activity, there weren't any signs of destruction, so it was sure I'm not looking out over a nuclear apocalypse. How sure? Very sure. Well that's good to know.
Kara Goldfinch
victor tsaran@tink First, let me say this is seriously helpful, and by seriously, I do mean seriously. I can't thank you enough. Secondly, and you can feel free to ignore this, you've done more than enough already, I want to know two things. 1. Does the audio come out of the phone or out of the glasses? 2. Can I type to meta rather than talking to it? Again, thanks very much.
@techsinger You're very welcome. I'm glad it's helpful.
The audio comes out of the glasses, but it's quite discrete. Someone standing close to you can hear Meta AI talking, but not otherwise.
When connected all your phone audio comes via the glasses, including VoiceOver/TalkBack.
You can type at Meta AI in the app, but as far as I can tell, this doesn't prompt the glasses, only Meta AI in the app.
@tink Thanks again. I'm scratching my head getting the audio out of the phone, I want it sending to my hearing aids not over the glasses. I wouldn't be able to hear through the glasses (profound loss). Just one more thing, if you type to meta in the app, can you type "meta, tell me the cooking instructions" to use your example? I know I can't prompt the glasses to start, I just want to communicate with them via the app's typing once I've started them with the touch pad. Again, thanks.
@techsinger I must admit I'm not sure. I find using Meta AI via the app a poor experience with VoiceOver. As far as I can tell though, I don't think you can. I'm also doubtful you could choose to stream the glasses audio output to your hearing aids either.
@tink Thanks once more. I daresay the only option is to just buy it myself and see what happens.
@techsinger I've looked through the Meta AI app and it doesn't look like it's possible to connect a Bluetooth device to the Metas directly, only to use Bluetooth to connect the Metas to your phone, so I don't think it's possible to hook up your hearing aids I'm afraid.
@tink Again, thanks very much. What I was hoping to do was to have meta speak through the phone, and not use the glasses to speak at all, except as cameras. Is it possible to just change the default speech output for everything back to the phone, do you know?
@techsinger No, I don't think it is. There's nothing in the app that lets you route your audio that I can find.
@techsinger It doesn't have the benefit of being wearable, but the ChatGPT app might be worth trying. You can talk to it, type at it, and the audio will stream to whichever device you have connected. You can also enable the camera and get realtime descriptions that you can ask questions about.
@tink Makes sense. I'm really after something wearable, though, everything else is great but I've only got two hands :) Also, I never really know what I'm pointing out in the same way as I do as to where the glasses would be pointing.
@techsinger @tink There is a “hearing boost” option but it probably would not be sufficient for your use case.
@drew @techsinger There's also he privacy thing... at a moderate volume, it's possible to hear what Meta AI is saying if you're standing close to the wearer. I imagine that the greater the volume, the more it'd be possible for others to overhear. This might not be a problem, but worth considering.
Noah Tobias Carver 👨🏼🦯🇺🇦@tink Thanks. Am considering buying these, so this really helped.
@NoahCarver @tink You might also find this interesting, Tim takes the glasses even a bit farther.
Blind Meta Ray Ban Review 2025 - TIM DIXON
https://www.timdixon.net/blog/2025/04/blind-meta-ray-ban-review-2025/
@tink Thanks for doing this, it is an excellent write-up as usual (still reading) I ended up turning off the option for continuing to listen for prompts afterward, as it never really worked for me anyway and I usually only had one question at a time.
@tink Did you have any thoughts on the detailed responses feature? Or were you reserving that for a follow-up post?
@drew I'll need to write another post I think. When I checked back, that setting seems permenently set to "on", but it's dimmed so can't be turned off. As yet, I haven't been able to work out if that's because I enabled something somewhere else, or something else. If/when I get time to investigate though, I'll post something.@drew
@tink Thanks for this, a useful read. One quick question. I don't see the option to turn on detailed descriptions under accessibility that you mentioned, all I see is the Be My Eyes button to disconnect Be My Eyes. Am I looking in the wrong place or is this one of those things where some of us have it and some don't. Both my Meta AI app and glasses are up-to-date.
@robbiec12345 Interesting. I wonder if it's a regional limitation? I've just double-checked and the setting is there for me under the Accessibility heading in Settings.
Andre Louis@tink @robbiec12345 Just checked and I don't see this setting either, and I'm in the UK.
@FreakyFwoof @robbiec12345 Hm. Curious. I'm using v222.0 of the Meta AI app. If I go to the device settings, then find the Accessibility heading, I have two buttons; one to connect Be My Eyes and immediately after there's another for "Detailed responses, hear more when you ask about what's in front of you, responses may include inaccuracies, not available for live AI", though I realise on closer inspection the button is "dimmed" and permemantly set to "on".
@tink @robbiec12345 So am I, and glasses version 15. Probably it's a rollout or something.
@FreakyFwoof @tink Yeah, apparently the app store was not showing the app update for Meta AI but I'm still not seeing the setting even after updating to V222. Using V15.1 on the glasses, am in London UK and not using a VPN so agree it is likely a gradual rollout.
@tink Thanks for the write-up. Awesome, as usual! The only personal note from me is that I do not very much like the style of the glasses. I think they feel a bit bulky, but as you say, nothing in comparison to the Envision glasses... :) I know we can do better as far as the form factor goes! (wink)! :)
@vick21 Thanks Victor. I tend to agree. In an ideal world I'd prefer an even lighter form factor, but compared to the Envisions (Google Glass), the Metas are much more comfortable.
@FreakyFwoof @tink For me, it's actually less about the weight and more about the width of the overall profile of the glasses. But that's just how the Ray-ben design goes. The Google glasses that were shown at the I/O have a design that I personally prefer a bit more. Looking forward to whenever and whatever they end up with! <grin>
@tink Yep, totally!