Meta is developing facial recognition technology for its smart glasses, potentially launching as soon as this year, according to a New York Times report. The feature, codenamed Name Tag, aims to help users identify people they know through AI. However, privacy concerns have delayed its rollout, with the company citing a distracted political landscape as an opportunity for introduction.
A New York Times report, based on accounts from four anonymous sources familiar with Meta's plans, reveals that the company is working to integrate facial recognition into its Ray-Ban and Oakley smart glasses. Internally referred to as Name Tag, the technology would allow wearers to identify individuals and access information about them using AI. Meta has considered limiting the feature to people already connected via its apps or to public details from Instagram accounts, explicitly ruling out universal recognition of strangers.
The report highlights Meta's hesitation due to privacy and ethical risks. Plans to unveil the feature at a conference for the blind last year were postponed, and it was omitted from the initial smart glasses launch in 2023. An internal memo from Meta's Reality Labs, dated 2025, suggests the company views the current US political instability as advantageous: "We will launch during a dynamic political environment where many civil society groups that we would expect to attack us would have their resources focused on other concerns."
Meta has a history with facial recognition. It shut down the Facebook photo-tagging system in 2021 amid backlash but revived a version in 2024 to detect scam ads using celebrities' faces, later expanding it to the UK, Europe, and South Korea. In 2024, two students demonstrated a hack enabling facial recognition on Meta glasses. The company emphasizes assistive uses, such as aiding the visually impaired, where one user's father already relies on the glasses for daily vision support.
When contacted by CNET, Meta stated: "We're building products that help millions of people connect and enrich their lives. While we frequently hear about the interest in this type of feature -- and some products already exist in the market -- we're still thinking through options and will take a thoughtful approach if and before we roll anything out."
Current limitations include battery life, restricting always-on AI modes to about one hour. As competitors like Google and OpenAI enter the smart glasses market, Meta sees the feature as a potential edge, though it stresses responsible development.
