Meta (META.US) is fully betting on the Muse AI smart device to use VR glasses, only glasses and Charm to build an all-scene entrance

The Zhitong Finance App learned that if you only look at the download data, Muse has already won. But Zuckerberg clearly wanted more than that. On September 23, local time, Meta (META.US) held its annual Connect developer conference in Menlo Park, California. The whole press conference sent a very clear signal: Muse, a personal AI agent that has only been online for two weeks, will be the soul of all Meta hardware in the future. From lightweight VR glasses to smart glasses without a camera, to a mini terminal that can be attached to a keychain, Muse is embedded in every new product.

This is a rare time on the AI circuit where Meta's product rhythm resonates highly with the market rhythm. Over the past two years, Meta's situation in the AI field has been quite embarrassing — it has spent a lot of money, piled up quite a bit of computing power, but it has always lacked a product that ordinary people can actually use. The advent of Muse changed that.

100 grams, $1,299, Meta redefines VR devices

The new hardware product that received the most attention at the conference was Meta VR Glasses. What is most notable about this device is not its features, but its weight — about 100 grams, which is only about one-sixth of Apple's (AAPL.US) Vision Pro, or even one-fifth of Meta's own Quest 3S.

At the core of achieving this breakthrough is a complete restructuring of the architecture. Meta externally mounts all computing elements such as the processor, battery, and cooling fan into a separate pocket-sized pouch, leaving only the display and sensor modules in the glasses. The cost of this design idea is to sacrifice part of the display resolution, which is about 2.5K per eye, lower than the 4K of the Vision Pro, but in exchange for 3 hours of battery life, which is higher than the Vision Pro, and supports full plug-in use.

The price is $1,299, which is about one-third of the Vision Pro ($3,699). The pricing strategy is quite clear: Meta is not trying to go head-to-head with Apple in the high-end market, but instead targets consumers who are interested in VR but are unwilling to pay nearly 4,000 dollars for early access through its “affordable high-end” positioning.

The device is equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon Reality Elite processor, which supports eye tracking and gesture control. Users can directly talk to the built-in Muse to complete tasks. The product is expected to be available in the spring of 2027.

Smart glasses without a camera, Meta's sincerity or strategy?

The privacy dispute is a hurdle Meta smart glasses can't overcome. In the past year, this product was labeled “perverted glasses,” the New York State Court banned it from entering the courts, and restrictions on use in Australian public swimming pools and London bars. There are reports that people use glasses to photograph women without their consent and post them on social media. In March of this year, a 230-page class action lawsuit was filed in California federal court. More than 70 consumers accused Meta of misleading users in terms of privacy protection. The lawsuit also revealed that Meta's AI training labelers had viewed private video clips uploaded by users, including images of changing clothes.

In this context, Meta launched its first camera-free AI glasses, Ray-Ban Meta Audio, and it's hard to say that wasn't a response. The glasses start at $349 and weigh 43 grams. They last up to 12 hours at a time, and can provide an additional 48 hours of battery life with a charging case. Features focus on audio playback, calls, voice translation, and voice interaction with Muse. The product is designed by Eview Lu Xuntika and offers 23 color combinations and lens combinations. Pre-order will open on October 13.

At the same time, the Ray-Ban Meta Gen 3 with a camera was also released at the same time. Starting at $449, it is equipped with a 12 megapixel camera and a 6-microphone array. Meta says it can reduce background noise by more than 90%.

Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth has previously publicly stated that he doesn't want a few “bad guys” to influence public opinion on smart glasses, and reiterated that Meta has set up a number of privacy protection measures, including an indicator that automatically lights up during recording and automatically disabling the camera when the indicator is blocked. The launch of the camera-free version can be seen as providing consumers with a “no need to trust” option at the product level — people who don't trust the camera can directly buy the camera-less version.

Charm: AI entrance the size of a key chain

As the press conference came to an end, Zuckerberg pulled the most topical product of the night, Muse Charm, out of his pocket.

This is a handheld device with an approximately 2-inch OLED touch screen. It has a built-in 5G modem and is equipped with a new operating system made specifically for Muse. The device is equipped with a speaker, microphone, front and rear cameras, and a USB-C interface, and supports fingerprint unlocking and music and video playback. Users can carry it with a wristband, lanyard, or directly in a pocket.

Charm is positioned not as a smartphone replacement, but as an exclusive entrance to Muse. Press the fingerprint sensor to talk directly to the AI without unlocking the phone or opening the app. “We packed the full Muse experience — including real-time voice and digital avatar — into a device that can be attached to a key chain,” Zuckerberg said at the press conference.

The product is operated by a design lab led by Alan Dye, a former Apple interface design director. The appearance is similar to the 90s electronic pet machine Tamagotchi (Tamagotchi). The transparent case allows users to see the internal circuitry, and the center of the screen shows a virtual Muse character with customizable appearance, costume, and sound. When two Charm users are close, the devices can also recognize and interact with each other.

Notably, Meta originally planned to launch the device in 2027, but Zuckerberg personally pushed the team to advance the timeline to the end of 2026 to catch up with the holiday shopping season. However, Meta technical director Bosworth admits that Charm is more like an “exploration” and is a typical “V0” product. It is expected that in the future, there will still be far more people using Muse than Charm through mobile phones and smart glasses.

According to information, the history of independent AI hardware is not good. The Humane AI Pin and Rabbit R1 both tried to separate AI from mobile phones and become independent hardware, and the market performance was not ideal. The point of Charm is probably not how many units it can sell, but rather that it sends a signal to developers and the market: Muse's shape is not limited to mobile screens; Meta is willing to explore any possible hardware carrier for it.

Muse's undercard: from 2.5M downloads to 36 billion user pool

The reason why the Connect conference hardware offensive was established was that Muse itself had already launched.

Since its launch on September 8, Muse's download data has continued to exceed market expectations. According to Sensor Tower data, the total number of downloads on the entire network in the 13 days since launch was about 2.6 million, and the number of daily active US mobile users reached 642,000, far higher than the 231,000 in the same period when ChatGPT was launched. Meta shares rose 11.4% in a single day on the 13th day after Muse's release, and the market capitalization increased by nearly $200 billion.

But what really excited Wall Street was not the number of downloads itself, but Muse's distribution logic. Over 95% of Muse users are also Facebook users, and 63% are Instagram users. This means Meta doesn't need to acquire customers from zero — it has a social empire of 3.6 billion daily active users, and Muse only needs to complete the conversion in this stock pool.

The path to commercialization has also surfaced. Muse currently offers a free version with a weekly usage quota of 100 million tokens; the paid plans are $20 per month (500 million tokens) and 100 dollars per month (3 billion tokens). Analysts at Jefferies estimate that if Muse reaches 1 billion users by the end of 2027 and converts 3% to paying users, the annualized revenue could reach 10.8 billion US dollars. Evercore's Mark Mahaney gave a more intuitive estimate: only 1% of Meta's 3.6 billion users would pay $20 a month to generate around $8 billion in annual revenue.

At the e-commerce level, Meta is also speeding up its layout. Muse is connected to retailers such as Walmart (WMT.US), Best Buy (BEST.US), Gap (GAP.S), Sephora, Wayfair (W.US), and PayPal (PYPL.US) payment systems, and has added Expedia (EXPE.US) travel reservations and Instacart grocery shopping features. Zuckerberg made it clear that Meta's business model is “taking a small fee from transactions.” It's worth mentioning that Amazon (AMZN.US) has blocked Muse from browsing its stores, which to some extent highlights the strategic value of partners such as Walmart.

Muse will also support Mac-side operations. Users can hand over tasks such as file management, email processing, and scheduling to AI agents, and Muse will continue to perform tasks in the queue even after leaving the computer. Bain & Co., predicts that the US agency e-commerce market will reach 300 billion to 500 billion US dollars by 2030, accounting for 15% to 25% of the entire US e-commerce market. Meta is clearly in the card market.

Looking at the products released at the Connect conference in tandem, Meta's strategic logic is clear: Muse is the center, hardware is the entrance, and the social empire's user base is the distribution channel. VR glasses are aimed at immersive entertainment scenes, audio glasses are aimed at everyday commuting and light interaction, and Charm is for quick mobile calls — each of the three scenes performs its duties. The common goal is to make Muse the most frequent AI touchpoint in users' daily lives.

It's not an easy path to follow. Meta's 2026 capital expenditure guidance is as high as $130 billion to $145 billion, mainly investing in data centers and AI infrastructure. At this scale of investment, the market's expectations for Muse are not only an easy-to-use AI product, but also an engine that can support Meta's growth in the next ten years.

The privacy dispute won't go away anytime soon. However, the product rhythm and strategic clarity that Meta showed at this conference made investors see at least one possibility: at the turning point where AI is moving from “being able to talk” to “capable,” Meta is not left behind.