Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses get hands-free Apple Music integration and more

Meta has updated the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses with a little more functionality, especially for Apple Music, Messenger, and WhatsApp users.

Part of the appeal of Meta’s glasses is listening to music through the built-in speakers, but if you’re in Apple’s ecosystem, that requires first manually queuing up music from your phone’s Apple Music app. Now, as first reported by 9to5Mac, Apple users can control their music entirely with their voice.

Using the Ray-Ban Meta’s voice assistant, you can now make a voice request to play a specific song, artist, album, playlist, or genre. Also, if you’re listening to a song for which you don’t know the title and artist, you can ask, “Hey Meta, what song is this?” and Meta AI will tell you. This feature is not quite as handy as Now Playing on the Google Pixel, which automatically identifies songs playing nearby, but it’s still pretty useful.

Also: I’ve tested a lot of tech in the past 6 months – the Meta Ray-Bans were the biggest surprise

Additionally, a new tap gesture will now let you hold the stem of your glasses to start playing a station tuned to your interests.

Music aside, the latest update also lets you share video during a WhatsApp or Messenger call straight from your glasses. Previously, you could send messages with images or video captured with the glasses, but you couldn’t share live video. A WhatsApp FAQ page explains this feature: “You can do this by double tapping the physical capture button on glasses during a call. You can use this feature even if you haven’t linked WhatsApp in the Meta View app. To enable sharing your view, tap the glasses icon during your next video call for instructions.”

Meta has been quick to add features to its smart glasses since introducing them less than a year ago. Last month, Meta updated the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses with the ability to identify landmarks just by looking at them.

You will need to update your Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses to use the new Apple Music and video call integration. To make sure you have the latest version, bring your glasses close to your phone and pair them. Head to the Meta View app on your phone and tap Settings. Select Your Glasses and then hit Update. You’ll see a notification if an update is needed.