Meta Connect Event Set for September 23–24 Alongside New Glasses Tease

By
Ben Lang
-
17

Meta’s annual Connect event is set to return on September 23–24. The company teased what appears to be a new pair of smart glasses, and said its event will focus on “the latest in VR, wearables, metaverse, and AI.” All eyes will be on the event this year as the XR industry watches to gauge Meta’s next moves after a year of major reorganization and shifting priorities.

The News

Meta Connect 2026 will be hosted from September 23–24. The company’s annual event highlights its latest news and priorities in XR and AI. As with previous years, the event will be held at the Menlo Park campus, with significant keynotes and announcements being streamed online.

Alongside the Connect date announcement, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared a photo on social media teasing what’s likely to be a new pair of the company’s smart glasses which now span audio-only and a pair with a monocular display. In the photo the glasses were scratched out with blue markings to hide any identifying features.

Image courtesy Mark Zuckerberg

My Take

While it’s no surprise that Meta is hosting Connect once again this year, the 2026 edition of the event feels especially important for both the company and the XR industry at large.

The last 12 months have been anything but smooth sailing for those who are part of the XR industry. Canceled projects, layoffs, and closures at many of Meta’s internal XR studios have shown the company’s shifting of priorities away from XR and more toward its smart glasses business. Against the backdrop of similar struggles among external XR studios, the future hasn’t been looking very bright.

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Meta insists it’s still committed to building and investing in XR, positioning its moves as necessary steps to course-correct on initiatives that didn’t pan out as expected.

Meta Connect will be the company’s next clear opportunity to give developers and customers confidence in the future of the Meta XR ecosystem.

One major thing driving uncertainty in XR right now is that Meta has announced several new pairs of smart glasses, but has not been clear about plans for upcoming Quest devices (the last of which, Quest 3S, was launched more than a year-and-a-half ago). Reporting suggests Meta’s headset plans have been shifting internally; rumors have been swirling about a high-end puck-focused headset that would be a Vision Pro competitor, or a more affordable next-gen Quest.

Meta announcing a new headset at Connect is probably the strongest signal the company could send to show both confidence and direction in its ecosystem. If a new headset isn’t announced, it will surely have the opposite effect.

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Ben Lang
Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • Herbert Werters

    Will they also present their new “Model Capability Initiative”?

  • g-man

    eww meta

  • NL_VR

    im guessing it will be zer0 interesting.
    steam frame were are you

    • Andrew Jakobs

      It all depends if they present a new headset with much better displays/lenses/eyetracking/soc and still be much cheaper. By now I doubt the Frame will be anything less than $1200 for a full set.

      • xyzs

        It can be whatever, it’s still running horizon os, this android garbage packed with unwanted bloat and crappy ui.

      • NL_VR

        Then you should know that Valve said it will not be more than Index fullkit which was €999 so 1200$ wont happen…. I hope.
        there isnt something like a fullset for the frame. 2 IDs has been shown in leaks. It is peobably a 256GB and a 1TB storage options. Maybe its the 1TB version will be more expensive

        • Andrew Jakobs

          Yeah, that was just before the big increase in prices of memory..

          • NL_VR

            IIt doesnt work like that.
            there are already a bunch of headset made, rumours said already shipped to Valve with a release reveal in June.
            you think they put oit a temporary higher price now and then lower it or raise it.
            No I think Valve will set a price and that be the peice for a long time only be lowered for a sale.

  • polysix

    Bore off with AR glasses. VR is what we want, can META actually come back and FIX VR after they drove it into the ground with shitty mobile chips and LCD (not to mention under-pricing to stifle competition and high quality VR).

    • Andrew Jakobs

      Oh f off, Meta didn't drive it into the ground with shitty mobile chips and LCD, they are excellent headsets especially for the mainstream. At least the have wireless headsets (for now, as a headset with a puck on your belt connected wired to the headset is still a wired headset to me, but OK, less annoying than connected to a pc).
      and the didn't really under-price it, they just did the same as most console manufacturers do, sell it at cost.
      yeah of course much faster mobile socs and OLED/miniled displays would be better, but look at the competition who has all that, those headsets are $1500+ more.. And to me, those headsets are rather the death of VR due to their absurd high prices.

      • Nevets

        A HMD with a belt puck is emphatically not a wired headset. But everything else you said is spot on.

        • Andrew Jakobs

          It got a long wire so it technically is wired. I have the HTC Vive Pro with 'wireless'module which has a long wire from the module on top of your headset down to the battery on your belt. Yeah it's a step up from wired to the PC (even with a trolley system), but it's still much more of a hassle as when everything is integrated into the headset/strap itself like the pico 4.

      • ZarathustraDK

        Those absurd prizes is where you'll find the mentality I believe should drive VR-development, not the Meta loss-lead bs that's bordering on Idiocracy-"brought to you by Carls Jr."-levels of user-farming and IOI-dystopian corporate control.

  • VR Slut

    XR is one step removed from the Road To VR so their shifting of priorities away from XR is another step removed and not just a rumor but actually swirling about down the AI hole and what are all those billionare perverts going to do do with all the footage of people wearing their AI glasses on the toilet???

  • xyzs

    I gave up on meta.

    15 years they still didn’t release impressive hardware. Their os is less polished than many personal projects with 100000 less resources. If you can’t craft marvellous projects with this much money, it means the company is broken down to the foundations.

  • XRC

    Interesting piece on bbc news today "Smart glasses are 'an invasion of privacy' – Meta's are selling better than ever"

    concerning the privacy implications of smart glasses or "pervert glasses" as dubbed by some in the popular media

    as mentioned in the article, a comment from
    David Harris, former Meta AI researcher, teacher at UC Berkeley and AI policy advisor:-

    "Technology like this is fundamentally an invasion of privacy and it's really going to face more and more backlash."

  • zaelu

    yawn