Meta Connect 2024 recap: Mark Zuckerberg reveals Orion smart glasses, new AI features, transparent Ray-Bans, and an affordable Quest 3S

• Mark Zuckerberg kicked off the Meta Connect 2024 developer conference on Wednesday with a keynote.
• The big news was his demo of Meta's first "true AR" prototype glasses, "Orion," which are still a work in progress.
• He also revealed new Meta AI features, limited-edition Ray-Ban smart glasses, and a $299 Quest 3S.

Mark Zuckerberg knocked it out of the park during Meta's big day.

The Meta CEO looked calm, cool, and collected as he took the stage on Wednesday to announce a slew of new AI and hardware products — including a teaser of the company's long-awaited fully holographic glasses, Orion.

The Orion glasses were the news of the day, and in a surprising turn for AR glasses, they looked ... pretty slick!

The smart glasses integrate visuals into the lenses, making them the company's first "true AR" glasses. They still have a ways to go until they truly blend in like Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses, but they were notably sleeker than the rival Snap Spectacles that Snap CEO Evan Spiegel showed off last week.

Zuckerberg ran a sizzle reel of famous names in tech reacting positively to the Orion glasses in early previews, with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang to Reddit CEO Steve Huffman praising the prototype as a leap forward.

Business Insider's chief correspondent, Peter Kafka, also got an early demo of the Orion AR glasses and wrote that he'd "buy them in a heartbeat."

But people will have to wait a while to get their hands on them. The current Orion prototype isn't launching to consumers, although Zuckerberg said some external developers get access. It'll be the next version, however, that the company eventually launches to the public.

Zuckerberg's other announcements were more tangible. He showed off limited-edition transparent frames of Meta's Ray-Ban glasses and a slew of new AI features coming to the product, which has been a sleeper hit for the company.

Meta's AI, which is available through Instagram, Facebook, Messenger, and WhatsApp, is also getting new celebrity voices for its chatbots and multi-modal voice and vision features to better compete with OpenAI's ChatGPT.

The CEO covered some of the big names behind the new Meta AI voices, which range from John Cena to Awkwafina. He also demonstrated some impressive real-time assistance tools and debuted a new entry-level Quest 3S mixed-reality headset that costs $299, which will only apply increasing pressure to Apple's rival Vision Pro and its $3,499 price tag.

The keynote was a chance for Zuckerberg to outline his vision of the future — and Meta's role in shaping what could be the next big computing platform.

Wall Street seemed impressed. Meta's stock was up more than 2% as Zuckerberg exited the stage.

Scroll on to get the full recap of Zuckerberg's Meta Connect keynote.

That's a wrap! Zuckerberg closes out his keynote with a glimpse into the AI future.

Zuckerberg has been all about the future of tech, and the conclusion of his keynote is no different.

His segment of the Connect keynote concluded with a skit about how the Orion smart glasses could one day transform how humans communicate today.

We're seeing what his vision is when the technology catches up, with holographic conversations with others that make it feel like your friend is in the room with you.

Filmmaker Matthew Vaughn also briefly takes the stage to say how impressed he was by Orion.

And that's it for Zuck's 2024 Meta Connect keynote!

Zuckerberg says the public will have to wait to get their hands on full holographic glasses.

Zuckerberg said that the Orion holographic glasses aren't quite ready to hit the shelves for consumers, but they'll be available for some external developers.

In the meantime, Zuckerberg said Meta is working on lowering the retail price for the glasses and work on manufacturing challenges.

So it'll be the next version of the glasses that Meta will eventually launch as a consumer pair — release date TBD.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was among those who tested out the 'Orion' glasses early.

Zuckerberg says that early testers of the Orion glasses were left "giddy" by what the device could do.

He rolls a video of various big names in tech and Silicon Valley trying them out early.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was among the tech CEOS, media personalities, and Olympians who praised Orion — calling its 100-gram weight "a big deal" and praising the visuals and field of view.

Zuck’s vision for the AI future includes a "neural interface."

"I think that you need a device that allows you to send a signal from your brain to the device," Zuckerberg said.

As such, the glasses come with a bracelet that makes that possible.

Zuckerberg says Orion will be used as a "dev kit" — so don't expect to be able to buy it anytime soon.

We’re getting our first look at Orion, the "full holographic” glasses prototype.

There's a bit of theatrics to introduce the bulky eyewear — they're brought in under lock and key in a briefcase.

Zuckerberg shows off "Orion," fully holographic glasses that he says are the most advanced device of their kind.

Zuck drops limited-edition Ray-Ban glasses.

To top off the new updates to Meta's Ray-Ban glasses, Zuckerberg said the tech giant would launch a pair of limited-edition clear-frame glasses.

The smart glasses will also be a real-time translator.

Zuckerberg said that Meta AI will be able to translate conversations live for those wearing their smart Ray-Ban glasses, and he demonstrated as much by carrying out a conversation in Spanish onstage with Brandon Moreno.

The glasses will translate in your ear what someone is saying, and your responses can be translated via the companion app.

Now here’s what’s new with Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses.

Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses are getting more conversational, and they'll have a better memory of what you've seen, Zuckerberg said.

They will also be outfitted with multi-modal AI that has the power to assist users in real time.

We're seeing some upcoming features, like the AI offering fashion advice based on what it sees you grabbing to put on as you get ready for a night out.

Meta's open-source AI model, Llama 3.2, gets its moment.

"Llama continues to improve quickly, and we're just adding more and more capabilities," Zuckerberg says.

Llama 3.2 won't be released in the European Union immediately, but Zuckerberg says Meta will soon "figure that out."

The next demo is a bit uncanny.

Meta is expanding its AI creator tools.

Technologist Don Allen Stevenson III joined Zuckerberg onstage to demonstrate a video calling feature during which he spoke to an AI version of Stevenson.

An AI avatar who looked and sounded like Stevenson answered questions about his creative process.

In another demonstration, creators speaking in one language could use AI to dub their videos in a new language.

Natural voices are the 'biggest AI' announcement of the day.

According to Zuck, interacting with AI using your voice will be a better way to interact with AI than text.

To demonstrate, Zuckerberg quickly asked a Meta AI assistant a question, and the chatbot responded with the voice of actor Awkwafina.

Meta is adding a bunch of celeb voices to its AI models that you can choose from, including Dame Judi Dench, John Cena, Keegan Michael Key, and Kristen Bell.

Next up: Meta AI.

Zuckerberg maintains that Meta AI will be the most used AI resource in the world by the end of 2024.

But, Zuck says, Meta AI is "probably already there."

Here's some new Quest features.

Zuck mentions a partnership with Microsoft to allow seamless use of a Windows PC while on the Quest.

And in the Metaverse, avatars have gotten a makeover and portals that allow users to jump around worlds will be available.

Hyperscape is another new feature for Quest users. It allows users to create photo-realistic spaces to virtually explore with photos.

He jumps "right in" with a demo in the crowd.

We're getting a quick demo right away to test out the improved pass-through abilities found on the Meta Quest 3S, which Zuckerberg says will make mixed-reality better.

We're seeing a lot of Apple Vision Pro-like examples of someone with floating panels of content in front of them, hovering in the air. You can also stick the virtual panels to the nearby wall.

Zuckerberg starts off the keynote with a new Quest 3S headset.

"It's been a busy year. It's been an exciting year," Zuckerberg said.

He then jumped right in with a new $299 Quest 3S, an entry-level mixed-reality headset.

And here we go!

The Meta Connect keynote is finally kicking off, and it'll be headlined by CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

It looks like things are running late...

The keynote was supposed to kick off at 1 p.m., but things haven't started yet. Can't be long now, though!

CTO Andrew Bosworth is pulling up to Meta Connect in style.

Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth, also known as Boz, is expected to be among the main speakers at the Connect keynote on Wednesday afternoon.

Less than an hour before the event kicks off, Bosworth shared an Instagram story sharing that he was headed to the event. From a mirror inside his futuristic Mercedes-Benz, we can see that he captured the video using Meta'a Ray-Ban smart glasses.

"On my way to Meta Connect," Bosworth said in the caption.

There’s been a lot of chatter around Meta's 'Orion' AR glasses.

Business Insider first reported in February that Meta was aiming to show off and demo its first true AR glasses in the fall at Connect and that the prototype was referred to internally as "Orion."

Publicly, Zuckerberg hasn't held back from teasing that a new pair of AR glasses are in the works. A February photo on Threads was called out this summer for having a pair of mystery glasses in the background.

The Meta CEO responded to the question about the glasses with, "Will be ready to share more later this year."

The Connect keynote could be the time to officially introduce the public to these glasses, which are reportedly separate from the Meta Ray-Ban's, which don't feature a screen in the lenses, and the bulkier Quest headset, which is all about the VR screens and AR passthrough cameras. The "Orion" AR glasses, which are expected to integrate visuals into the lenses, aren't expected to go on sale in the near term — but seeing them demoed would offer an interesting glimpse into where Meta envisions the future of AR glasses is headed.

Zuckerberg said in an interview earlier this year that the Orion glasses won't be as stylish and slim as the Meta Ray-Ban product.

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