Meta is accelerating its plans for a Meta Ray-Ban Display successor, hoping to launch later this year, The Information reports.
The current Meta Ray-Ban Display, exclusively available in the US for just under five months now, is a monocular device. It has a small display in the right lens, while your left eye sees nothing. In our review, we described how this “just feels wrong”, inducing a constant minor feeling of eyestrain when the display is active for more than a few seconds.
The reason that Meta Ray-Ban Display is monocular is that, as Meta’s CTO pointed out in the weeks before the device’s launch, the components for a binocular device would cost more than twice as much, since it also requires implementing disparity correction. It would also drive up the bulk and weight, harming social acceptability even further than it already is.
But the cost of in-lens waveguides and miniature light engines should decrease with scale, and Meta executives have described the demand for Meta Ray-Ban Display as significantly higher than expected, leading to the delay of the plan to launch the product internationally.
David Heaney
During development, Meta Ray-Ban Display was internally codenamed Hypernova. Last year, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported that Meta plans to release a successor, codenamed Hypernova 2, in 2027. Hypernova 2 would include a display in both eyes, he wrote at the time.
This timeline was corroborated by supply-chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who also said Meta would replace the first-generation product with a successor in 2027.
Now, though, The Information’s Jyoti Mann reports that Hypernova 2 will launch this year, not in 2027. While the report doesn’t go into much detail, Mann describes Meta executives as being “concerned that launching too many devices in quick succession could confuse customers”.
Given that Meta plans to launch its ultralight Horizon OS headset in early 2027, and that multiple sources point towards the company aiming to launch its first true AR glasses in the second half of 2027, shipping binocular HUD glasses this year may make for a less confusing release sequence.
Mann’s report says Meta has also revived plans to launch a smartwatch, hoping to release that later this year too.
With the binocular HUD glasses, Meta could be hoping to get ahead of Apple’s upcoming smart glasses, widely believed to be launching in early 2027. With Apple’s first glasses lacking a display at all, Mark Zuckerberg could be hoping to present Meta as the technology leader in the smart glasses space.
David Heaney
Keep in mind that Meta’s hardware roadmap is constantly shifting, and the company frequently spins up and cancels headsets before they ship. When a specific product gets close to shipping, we’ll bring you any reliable rumors of its imminent arrival. Until then, be ready for anything planned to get canceled or delayed.
