What To Anticipate At Meta Join 2026: New AI Glasses, A Blended Actuality Headset And Extra

Meta is about to carry its largest occasion of the yr. Whereas Join was as soon as solely devoted to digital actuality, the occasion now covers all the corporate’s {hardware} tasks, in addition to AI and the metaverse.

And this yr may very well be much more jam-packed than regular. Between Meta’s ever-expanding sensible glasses lineup, its breakneck AI releases and the present trade freakout over the tempo of AI growth, there is definitely a number of floor for CEO Mark Zuckerberg to cowl.

Like final yr’s occasion, Meta has once more opted for a night keynote, with Zuckerberg taking the stage at 4PM PT/7PM ET on September 23. There might be extra talks and developer classes the next day, beginning with a 10AM PT/1PM ET “developer state of the union.” As regular, I will be on the bottom watching the keynote dwell from Meta’s HQ in Menlo Park so examine again for our liveblog and post-keynote protection. Within the meantime, here is the whole lot I will be looking for throughout Join.

As with the previous few years, there’s prone to be a number of glasses-related information. One attention-grabbing change with this yr’s technique is that the corporate is reportedly engaged on a pair of camera-free frames. These glasses, which can reportedly are available in two types, will as a substitute include further microphones for chatting with Meta’s AI assistant. The shortage of cameras might supply Meta a few benefits. The frames will reportedly be a bit slimmer and look extra like “regular glasses.”

Extra considerably, they might additionally assist Meta deal with ongoing privateness issues and backlash towards its present lineup of glasses. Meta has been attempting to get forward of the “creep glasses” narrative in current weeks by cracking down on individuals who tamper with the LED lights and submit movies of themselves harassing others. In a current AMA on Instagram, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth mentioned the corporate would have “extra to say” in regards to the concern throughout Join.

Ray-Ban has not too long ago hinted that it has new Meta-branded glasses coming quickly. That may very well be a reference to those camera-free frames or, maybe, a brand new Gen 3 lineup (the primary Gen 2 fashions debuted ultimately yr’s Join). One other chance is the following technology of Meta Ray-Ban Show. There have been reviews that Meta is engaged on a model of the glasses that may include shows in each lenses, which might open up some attention-grabbing potentialities by way of their UI. But it surely’s been some time since we have heard something in regards to the rumored gadget, typically known as “Hypernova 2,” so Meta may very well be holding that one again for now.

It has been some time since we have seen a brand new headset from Meta, and we have by no means seen something from them fairly just like the gadget at the moment generally known as “Phoenix.” The blended actuality headset has been rumored for a while, however it actually looks like the corporate is gearing up for it to make its official debut at Join.

A number of photographs of the light-weight gadget not too long ago surfaced in a HorizonOS replace. These photographs present a skinny gadget that nearly appears extra like a pair of goggles than a headset. It additionally clearly reveals a cable, which helps earlier reporting that Phoenix will depend on a tethered connection to a separate puck. It is also rumored to assist hand and eye monitoring relatively than a devoted controller.

And whereas we do not know a lot about what Phoenix will seem like in the best way of specs, it looks like a reasonably good wager the headset might be among the many first units to make use of the brand new Snapdragon Actuality Elite chip Qualcomm introduced earlier this yr. Meant for blended actuality headsets, the chip was particularly designed to assist slimmed-down type elements.

A brand new type of headset will in all probability additionally imply some updates to HorizonOS, and will probably be attention-grabbing to see what sorts of experiences Meta will promote alongside the brand new {hardware}. The corporate has been shuttering VR studios left and proper, so I doubt we might see any enormous recreation bulletins to go along with Phoenix. But it surely does appear to be Meta might promote extra entertainment-focused choices. Deadline reported final yr that Meta was backing a brand new “3D horror collection” based mostly on A24’s Discuss to Me that is apparently meant for viewing within the firm’s headsets.

We can also hear extra about Meta’s holographic avatars that we first noticed two years in the past with its Orion prototype. Meta informed me on the time that the know-how would ultimately come to digital actuality and, provided that Qualcomm has highlighted “photorealistic avatars” as one of many advantages of its aforementioned chip, this looks like a really actual chance. The Data additionally not too long ago reported that an avatar of Meta’s CTO might make an look throughout the Join keynote. These avatars might additionally issue into Meta’s evolving imaginative and prescient for the metaverse. When the corporate virtually shut down Horizon Worlds in VR earlier this yr, Bosworth mentioned that augmented actuality was very a lot a part of the corporate’s “expansive assemble of the metaverse.”

The previous few years of Join have included a number of AI information and this yr should not be any completely different. This would be the first Join since we have seen a flood of latest AI releases from the corporate’s superintelligence group, and I am positive the corporate is saving some AI-focused updates for Join.

I totally anticipate Meta to speak much more about its AI agent, Muse. The corporate teased that glasses assist for the agent can be coming “quickly,” so I would not be stunned if we hear extra about how it will work at Join. (Agent capabilities is also a superb promoting level for camera-free glasses.)

I am additionally hoping to listen to extra about Meta’s work to carry extra third-party apps to its glasses ecosystem. Final yr at Join, the corporate introduced a handful of apps that may be coming to its digicam glasses, however we’ve not seen a complete lot of momentum since. And earlier this yr it began permitting builders to create devoted apps for Meta Ray-Ban Show. Displaying off a brand new slate of third-party apps for the frames may very well be a great way to construct extra pleasure for the product even when we do not see up to date {hardware}.