Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses now give turn-by-turn walking directions

Walking directions arrived on Meta’s non-display smart glasses with software version 128, which began reaching Ray-Ban Meta and Oakley Meta frames at the end of August and the start of September. A wearer says “Hey Meta, navigate to Times Square,” and the route is spoken through the frame’s open-ear speakers one turn at a time. The feature is labeled beta and covers the United States, Puerto Rico, Canada and what Meta calls select cities. A follow-up update, version 129, was reported on Oct. 5 and added audio accessibility settings for wearers with hearing differences.

Three Meta glasses lines are in play: the Ray-Ban Meta and Oakley Meta frames without displays, which only speak, and the Meta Ray-Ban Display model, which draws on a lens and had walking directions first. Bringing the feature to the screenless frames changes what a pair of sunglasses can do on a sidewalk, and it comes with a privacy-light change that alters what the camera does when someone interferes with its indicator.

Version 128 and the beta rollout

Ben Schoon of 9to5Google, writing on Oct. 5, described version 128 as the release in which “turn-by-turn pedestrian navigation is here”, and noted that wearers can also share a location from a phone’s mapping app straight to the glasses. The same report carries a line in Meta’s notes about anti-tampering changes to the privacy LED, covered in the last section below.

Gizmodo quoted Meta as saying that version 128 brings walking directions to the U.S., Puerto Rico, Canada, and “select cities”. The outlet dated the release to Aug. 31 and pointed out that the feature had previously belonged to Meta Ray-Ban Display, the company’s only smart glasses with a built-in screen, in select cities only.

GearLive put the firmware release at Sept. 1 and listed three models as supported: Ray-Ban Meta, Oakley Meta and Meta Ray-Ban Display. It also noted that Meta’s documentation labels real-time pedestrian navigation as beta, available only in select cities, and that Meta has not published a list of the participating cities.

Phone routing and the screenless problem

The glasses do not do all the work themselves. GearLive reported that simple requests run on the glasses, while anything like plotting a route goes through the paired phone and the Meta AI app, which puts a paired phone at the center of any trip longer than a short, simple request. TechJuice, in its Sept. 8 report, described the same split: nearby destinations by voice, longer trips handed to the phone.

The audio-only design brings its own friction. Without a map overlay, a wearer cannot see which fork of a five-way intersection the route requires, or confirm a position visually after stopping for a light, a limitation GearLive raised directly. The Ray-Ban Display model avoids that by drawing directions on a lens; in September, Meta announced that Display glasses would add cycling and public transit directions in the U.S. and Canada, plus walking directions that use landmarks such as “turn left at the yellow house” in place of street names. That announcement made no mention of walking directions for the non-display glasses.

Version 128 also introduced spatial audio support, which GearLive said ships switched off, so wearers must enable it in settings. That matters because the Display model is the one Meta is expanding fastest. In its September post, the company said the glasses were opening to the UK and Canada, with online ordering and retail sales beginning that day, while pre-orders in France, Italy and Germany would start progressively ahead of full availability on Oct. 13. The same post listed a hologram feature for WhatsApp video calls in U.S. early access this fall, Dolby Atmos video capture, calendar details and mirrored phone notifications. None of those items reach the screenless frames in the version 128 coverage.

Anti-tampering and the privacy LED

The same release carried a privacy change. TechJuice reported on Sept. 8 that Meta’s update disables the camera if its capture light is blocked, and 9to5Google’s account of the release notes describes anti-tampering tweaks that stop the camera from working when the privacy LED has been interfered with.

The practical effect is that covering the indicator no longer leaves a working camera behind it, for any pair that has taken version 128. Meta’s GPS navigation page for its AI glasses, last modified Sept. 15, promotes the navigation feature itself as a hands-free way to get real-time directions, audio cues and visual overlays, the last of which applies only to the Display model.

Version 129, rolling out as of the Oct. 5 report, adds mono audio, which plays the same sound in both ears for wearers with hearing differences, and a balance control that shifts sound left or right in steps. Both are under Device settings, then Audio, then Accessibility.

What Meta has not disclosed is which cities count as “select”: no list accompanies the rollout, and GearLive’s report says only that the company has not published one, which leaves wearers outside the U.S., Puerto Rico and Canada to find out by trying a route.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.

More from Morning Overview