Meta to Open Connect 2026 With Expected Camera-Free Smart Glasses
Meta's two-day Connect 2026 runs September 23-24, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg's keynote expected to feature the company's first camera-free smart glasses and a possible mixed reality headset.
The event runs September 23 to 24. Meta says "everyone is invited to join us virtually for Meta Connect," and registration for the livestream requires only a name, email address and country on the company's website. The stream will also be carried on the Meta for Developers Facebook page. Sessions begin September 23 at 7PM ET, 4PM PT, and resume September 24 at 1PM ET, 10AM PT, with translations available for non-English speakers.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg delivers the opening keynote on September 23 at 7PM ET. The developer state of the union and developer sessions follow at 1PM ET on September 24, with the sessions available to watch on demand. According to Engadget, the agenda is set to spotlight developer advocates, software engineers, designers and product managers working across VR, AI glasses and Horizon.
The camera-free model, which The Information reported is in the pipeline, is unofficially dubbed Luna and is said to carry six built-in microphones. Those microphones would let users speak with Meta's AI chatbot and with Muse, the company's new personal AI agent that reached the public earlier this month.
The expected shift follows months of criticism of Meta's existing glasses, which critics have called "pervert glasses," and of the privacy questions raised by their cameras. Meta has responded with software changes that disable the camera when the device detects that its flashing LED has been covered, whether by a strip of tape or a clip-on accessory. Instagram has banned users who posted videos of themselves interacting with others while wearing tampered glasses.
A mixed reality headset may also appear. Rumors point to a device codenamed "Project Phoenix," and new images of it surfaced earlier this month. The slimmer headset may not reach shelves this year, but the recent photos and Meta's own reference to VR in its event description leave open the possibility of a reveal.
Connect 2025 produced a run of smart glasses, among them the second-generation Ray-Ban Meta, the sporty Oakley Meta Vanguards and the Meta Ray-Ban Display, the company's first AI glasses with a display. That event also brought software updates for Meta's Quest headsets and the debut of Meta Horizon Studio, a platform for building VR spaces in Horizon Worlds. This year's Connect falls about two weeks after Apple's long-awaited iPhone Duo reveal.