The opportunity is immense and given Meta’s reach in India, Ray-Ban Meta Glasses may just make wearing glasses the next fashion statement. Set to hit leading optical and sunglass stores across India starting May 19, it is already being treated as a companion to phones in many markets.

Meta wants to put cameras on our face. The glasses, which follow 2021’s Ray-Ban Stories, are already selling well in the US. These are not entirely AR glasses since there is no screen to display information, but they come with powerful AI features, the list of which continues to grow. It is also an opportunity for Meta to encourage people to share their lives online.

With Meta AI integrated, you can simply say “Hey Meta” and ask questions about the world around you. For example, look at a monument in Calcutta or Mumbai and learn about it. When you are cooking, you can get tips based on ingredients in your kitchen. Whether you’re streaming music or podcasts, taking calls, or going live on Instagram or Facebook, Ray-Ban Meta glasses can help.

It can be helpful if you are in a foreign country and need directions while breaking the language barrier. Users can have conversations across English, French, Italian, and Spanish even when in airplane mode. All you need to do is download the language pack in advance. When you’re speaking to someone in one of those languages, you’ll hear what they say in your preferred language through the glasses in real time, and they can view a translated transcript of the conversation on your phone or hear through their phone. To get started, just say, “Hey Meta, start live translation.”

Meta AI app is at the heart of the glasses experience. After importing photos from your glasses, ask Meta AI in the app to add, remove, or change parts of the image.

New features are on the way: You will be able to send and receive direct messages, photos, audio calls, and video calls from Instagram hands-free on the glasses. This joins being able to make calls and send messages through WhatsApp and Messenger, as well as the native messaging app on iPhone or Android phones. Simply say, “Hey Meta, send a picture to Rajat on WhatsApp.”

The company is also expanding access to music apps like Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music and Shazam.

Starting at ₹29,900, pre-orders have started on Ray-Ban.com.