Meta plans to add facial recognition to its Ray-Ban smart glasses as soon as this year, according to a New York Times report. The feature, internally called "Name Tag," would let wearers identify people and retrieve information about them through Meta's AI assistant.
The company has been discussing the feature since early last year, according to four people involved with the plans who spoke to the Times. An internal memo from May 2025 acknowledged the technology carries "safety and privacy risks" but described plans to release it.
Meta reportedly sees the current political turmoil in the United States as advantageous timing for the feature's launch.
"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,"
This marks a reversal from Meta's 2021 decision to shut down facial recognition on Facebook and delete the face scan data of one billion users. At that time, the company cited "growing societal concerns" about the technology's place in society.
Meta previously considered adding facial recognition to the first version of its Ray-Ban smart glasses in 2021 but shelved those plans over technical challenges and ethical concerns. The company has revived its efforts following the commercial success of its smart glasses, which sold more than seven million pairs last year through partner EssilorLuxottica.
Mark Zuckerberg reportedly wants the facial recognition feature to differentiate Meta's products from smart glasses being developed by competitors like OpenAI and Apple. The CEO also sees it as a way to make the AI assistant in the glasses more useful.
The feature would not function as a universal facial recognition tool that could identify anyone encountered, according to two people familiar with the plans. Instead, Meta is exploring options including recognizing people connected on Meta platforms and identifying those with public accounts on sites like Instagram.
Privacy advocates have expressed concerns about the technology's potential for abuse.
"Face recognition technology on the streets of America poses a uniquely dire threat to the practical anonymity we all rely on,"
said Nathan Freed Wessler of the American Civil Liberties Union. "This technology is ripe for abuse." Other platforms like Discord have also faced scrutiny for implementing facial recognition requirements.
Meta's internal memo described plans to first release Name Tag to attendees of a conference for the blind before making it available to the general public, though that initial release did not happen last year.
The company has a history of privacy-related settlements involving facial recognition. In recent years, Meta has paid over $2 billion to settle biometric privacy lawsuits, including $1.4 billion to Texas and $650 million to Illinois, over allegations of collecting facial data without permission. In 2019, Facebook paid $5 billion to the Federal Trade Commission to settle a lawsuit that included allegations about its facial recognition software.
"We're building products that help millions of people connect and enrich their lives,"
Meta said in a statement. "While we frequently hear about the interest in this type of feature, we're still thinking through options and will take a thoughtful approach if and before we roll anything out."
