Meta Previews New York Times Cooking Integration for AI and Display Glasses

The company showed the integration during its developer state of the union at Connect. The New York Times Cooking app is adding a "hands-free mode" that lets users pair their glasses with the app to receive audio cues for the dish they are cooking.

The mode will not simply read the same steps listed in the app. "With cooking's editorial guidance, we developed a system to restructure lengthy steps into brief audio instructions, preserving the author's expertise while supplying ingredients and measurements in line," The New York Times' AJ Chavar said, according to Engadget.

For Meta's Ray-Ban Display glasses, the recipe steps will also be kept brief. Each step will appear on a card that users can swipe through as they cook, according to the report.

Chavar did not say exactly when the app would be available on Meta's glasses. He said the hands-free mode would be rolling out "later this fall."

When Engadget reviewed Meta's display-enabled glasses last year, its reviewer wondered whether the glasses would be useful while cooking. The appeal was being able to see recipe steps without repeatedly unlocking and scrolling through a phone with dirty hands, according to the report. The glasses did not hold up as a cooking aid at the time. The only way to get recipe content was through Meta AI, and even when the reviewer tried recipes it suggested, the steps would not appear on the display long enough to complete them.

The new preview revived that hope, Engadget reported. No exact date for the Cooking app's availability on Meta's glasses was given beyond the hands-free mode's planned rollout later this fall.