Meta and Ray-Ban’s Stories glasses add WhatsApp support

Stories glasses from Meta and Ray-Bans are add WhatsApp support, allowing users to make hands-free calls, send text messages and hear messages read aloud. The addition follows the rollout of similar features to Facebook Messenger last year, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said users will soon be able to respond directly to WhatsApp and Messenger messages with voice commands as well.
The new features, partially disclosed in April, integrate Stories more tightly into the Meta ecosystem. They continue Meta’s efforts to become a virtual and augmented reality company as well as a social networking company. They’re also a potential workaround after Meta’s delay in fully rolling out its consumer AR glasses, building audio-focused AR with its existing hardware lineup. It follows the lead of companies like Bose, which introduced and then discontinued a set of AR audio glasses, as well as Amazon’s Echo frames. Stories, of course, also retain their core functionality: capturing photos and videos to post to Facebook.
For now, however, the new feature will have limited impact on many WhatsApp users since the stories are available in the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Austria, Belgium, France, in Italy, Spain and Australia – not overwhelmingly WhatsApp. markets like India and Brazil.