Meta Adds Walking Navigation to Ray-Ban Glasses in v128; v129 Brings Audio Controls

The pedestrian navigation feature is intended to reduce the need to pull out a phone while walking. Android Authority noted that pulling out a phone to check which way to turn somewhat defeats the point of wearing smart glasses. Meta tackled that problem last month with what the publication described as one of the more useful upgrades yet for its Ray-Ban smart glasses: turn-by-turn walking navigation. That feature arrived with v128 alongside several other improvements.

With v128, a user can say, “Hey Meta, navigate to Times Square,” and the glasses will use location information from the connected phone to guide them there, according to Android Authority. If a destination is too far to walk, Meta instead sends driving directions to the phone. The feature therefore covers walking routes through the glasses while falling back to phone-based driving directions for longer trips.

The v129 release follows v128 with Mono Audio and Audio Balance accessibility controls. v129 is still rolling out gradually, while v128 appears to be much more broadly available. Android Authority reported that v128 is becoming more widely available as Meta follows it up with v129. The report did not provide a full list of other improvements included in v128 beyond Spatial Audio, or detail additional changes in v129 beyond the two audio accessibility controls.