Meta is adding silly ‘borders’ and a soft paywall to its smart glasses

Would you pay $20 a month to access the AI ​​tools you already own? This seems to be one of Meta’s next bets. This week, it quietly announced that your Conversation Focus glasses will soon be limited to three hours of use per month, unless you pay for them. $19.99 Meta One Premium subscription.

In support issuethe company insists that I will not require registration to use your glasses, period; it’s just setting “limits” for some AI features. Even premium subscribers will only get 15 hours of Conversation Focus per month under that “limit,” it says.

The problem is, the Meta limits are ridiculous. Conversation Focus Article, which amplifies the voice of the person you are talking to so you can hear better in noisy places, it’s not something that should be limited, because it doesn’t use Meta servers. It runs on the deviceusing the chips inside the glasses you already bought. I turned off my internet, and it still works.

Here’s how the company pitched itself last year: “(C)lighting uses open-ear speakers with AI glasses, lighting technology, and real-time processing to amplify the voice of the person you’re talking to.”

Not only does it avoid Meta servers, but Conversation Focus doesn’t require an internet connection at all. I double-checked by turning off my phone’s Wi-Fi and cellular, and turning on Airplane Mode, and I was able to use Conversation Focus successfully with the click of a button on my phone.

Does Meta have a proprietary license with another company that costs money every time someone uses Conversation Focus? Otherwise, the value limit sounds false.

We asked if Meta could explain the move, and if the company plans to put other features on the devices behind the subscription. Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.