On Wednesday, Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled the company’s “first high-resolution AI glasses” — the Meta Ray-Ban Display, scheduled for launch on September 30 at a price of $799. Nonetheless, the presentation did not go as expected.

During the MetaConnect 2025 keynote at Meta’s headquarters in California, which took place at 5 p.m. Pacific (8 p.m. Eastern), there were high hopes for the announcement of an innovative pair of smart glasses, codenamed Hypernova. Instead, the event revealed an enhancement to the current Ray-Ban Meta frames, a new sports-oriented Oakleys line called Meta Vanguard, and the newly named Meta Ray-Bans, creating some confusion.

“This is one of those unique moments where we get to showcase something we’ve dedicated ourselves to,” Zuckerberg expressed to the audience and 4,000 online viewers. He underscored the bright, clear display of the Meta Ray-Bans, rated at 5,000 nits.

Zuckerberg also presented an accompanying device, the Meta Neural Band, a lightweight fabric wristband that detects subtle wrist motions, allowing users to input words on the smart glasses display by simulating handwriting. “I’m managing about 30 words per minute with this,” Zuckerberg noted.

However, Zuckerberg encountered a problem when a recurring WhatsApp video call from Meta CTO Andrew “Boz” Bosworth came through on his glasses. The Neural Band interface failed to respond to the call, forcing Boz to come on stage.

The demonstration started off well, featuring a live view through Zuckerberg’s Meta Ray-Bans, as he played an energetic song and replied to messages with a muscle-arm emoji utilizing the Neural Band’s volume control capability.

Yet, a live demonstration of the new Ray-Ban Metas (currently available for $379) stumbled with the glasses’ “LiveAI feature,” which was intended to assist a presenter in preparing a sauce. The glasses repeatedly commenced with “Now that you’ve made your base…” without responding to the presenter’s plea for initial guidance.

Zuckerberg later blamed the demo mishap on WiFi problems but was unable to clarify why his Meta Ray-Bans did not respond to Boz’s call. A pre-recorded video then showcased the Meta Ray-Bans being utilized to create a surfboard and order components.

Zuckerberg clarified that this illustrated how the glasses would interact with agentic AI, avoiding concerns regarding the effectiveness of agentic AI in live demonstrations or other contexts.