Meta Hypernova smart glasses: Everything we know so far

If you thought smart glasses were cool now, wait until Meta unveils its next big project. Meta Hypernova is a next-generation pair of smart glasses rumored to be announced on September 17, 2025, at Meta Connect 2025.

Meta Hypernova has been leaked and rumored for months and appears to be a middle ground between the full-fledged computer on your face, Meta Orion, and current Meta AI-powered smart glasses like Oakley Meta HSTN. If I'm going to make any comparison, it's likely these are akin to a smartwatch on your face, as far as capabilities go.

They're also slated to ship with a gesture band to make daily interaction a breeze. We've seen tons of leaks and info appear ahead of the official unveiling and have collected everything in one place below for your convenience. Here's everything you need to know about Meta Hypernova!

Meta Hypernova: Price and availability

Meta Hypernova is expected to be announced at Meta Connect on September 17, 2025. The new smart glasses are rumored to retail for $799 and are expected to be packaged with an sEMG gesture bracelet. The final retail product name is thought to be "Meta Celeste."

The glasses are slated to be available sometime later this fall, according to leaks, with Meta reportedly estimating that they will sell around 150,000 units in the first two years due to the price.

Meta Hypernova: Design and features

Leaked renders of Meta Hypernova, seen above, have a similar overall design to Ray-Ban Wayfarer glasses. The biggest difference between them is the thickness of the frames, as Hypernova has to fit a display in one of the lenses in addition to extra compute circuitry and a larger battery than Ray-Ban Meta or Oakley Meta smart glasses.

A key differentiator between those smart glasses products and Hypernova is the inclusion of a single display in one of the lenses. It's not yet known if this is customizable, but early reports said the display will be in the bottom portion of the right lens. It's likely that Meta is using waveguide optics for Hypernova, as the company was seen openly bragging about this tech recently.

The small display in one lens would act similarly to the display on a smartwatch. Since it's small, Meta would need to keep things terse and deliver glanceable information. This will likely range from smartphone notifications to turn-by-turn directions. Leaks also note that a small app launcher can display six icons on screen, similar to the mockup we made in the image below.

Meta Hypernova is likely using a similar version of the Android operating system that we used on Meta Orion last year. This OS resembles a lightweight version of the Meta Horizon Android-based OS, which powers VR headsets like the Meta Quest 3. We expect Hypernova's OS to be even more pared down, though, and is unlikely to feature traditional windows or full-fledged apps like Orion runs.

Rumors suggest that the glasses will ship with a handful of dedicated apps, with the potential for Meta to add more apps down the road. Meta AI, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, a camera app, and a maps app are all thought to be pre-installed on each pair of Meta Hypernova smart glasses.

Unlike Meta Orion, Hypernova isn't supposed to have positional tracking. This means the glasses won't be able to overlay virtual objects onto the real world the way a Meta Quest headset currently can. We expect later versions of Meta glasses to be able to do this, though.

A next-generation version of onboard Meta AI is expected to launch with Meta Hypernova glasses. It's said this upgraded AI model is able to use live AI for longer and allows for more interactivity with Meta AI. This means that you can have Meta AI see and hear what you see for more of your day, helping you to remember where you left your car keys or even what someone's name is.

Google previously showed off a similar feature for its upcoming smart glasses, both at Google I/O 2025 and at a TED Talk a few weeks earlier. Meta is spending a lot on Meta AI this year, so expect these and several other new features to debut on Meta Hypernova.

Meta Hypernova: Gesture bracelet

The biggest differentiator between Android XR-powered smart glasses and Meta Hypernova will be the way users interact with their glasses. The first batch of Android XR glasses will use a combination of Google Gemini and swiping on the side temple to interact with apps and notifications.

Meta Hypernova will also use Meta AI to interact with things, similar to how Ray-Ban Meta and Oakley Meta smart glasses work, but users will find that hand gestures with the included sEMG bracelet work best.

An sEMG bracelet allows you to more naturally interact with virtual interfaces by just using your hands and supports a seemingly endless variety of gestures. This GIF below shows you some of the gestures Meta has developed, with a human hand on the left and a virtual representation of how the glasses "see" your hand on the right.

An sEMG bracelet works by reading the electrical impulses in your muscles and understands even the slightest movements you make with your hands. This enables a next-generation hand-tracked input, which I've used during my Meta Orion demo in 2024. It's not just extraordinarily effective; it feels like an evolutionary leap in interaction, the way that multitouch displays were back in 2007 when the iPhone launched.

This gives Meta a significant advantage over Google and its partners, as voice-only interaction is only so useful. There are plenty of situations when using voice interaction is either inappropriate, disruptive, or just plain impossible, and this band is here to solve that problem.