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Does an app exist if its code has been shipped to millions of people’s devices but they still can’t use it? Not if you’re working Trim.
The management of the company has spent the last few weeks creating a debate about NameTag, the development. face recognition the system that Meta designed his smart glasses. The inevitable result is confusion, but it is easy to explain.
On June 4, WIRED reported that Meta included the powerful-but-not-functional NameTag code in Meta AI, the companion app for Meta Ray-Ban sunglasses that was downloaded countless times. In response to our story, Andy Stone, Meta’s vice president of communications, responded in part by writing on X“Here’s the thing: The Wired Meta reports didn’t answer a few questions about how this would work. How can we do it? Meta removed the NameTag code from Meta AI the next day.
According to WIRED’s analysis of the Meta AI app, the NameTag code has appeared in the app since January. In mid-February, The New York Times he also said that Meta has been working on NameTag facial recognition. By May, WIRED discovered, the main NameTag tools were available in the MetaAI software.
Whether the feature existed before Meta removed the code depends on how one defines “thing” and “existence.” No matter what one’s position is, the researcher who mentions the name of Buchodi reviewed the code at WIRED’s requestand was able to use the NameTag system to recognize the face of the philosopher Michel Foucault, famous for his observational writing as a powerful tool.
Claims that Meta had no way of explaining how the feature works – or that it could work – were further debunked last week, when Meta CTO Andrew “Boz” Bosworth went into detail on a podcast.
On July 8 paragraph of The most interesting thing in AI, host Nicholas Thompson, CEO of The Atlantic and former editor of WIRED – asked who NameTag would know in a discussion titled “NameTag facts and lies?” Bosworth replied: “Someone you met in person with your glasses on recognized you—or you said, ‘Okay, this is David, remember this guy.’ It’s only available to you when you put on your glasses – this is someone you’ve met before. Their name is this. They’re right in front of you… They’re what we call NameTags. “
Bosworth later said of NameTag, “So, it’s something that, um, I think would be a good thing.”
In response to questions from WIRED about the controversy, Meta has repeatedly emphasized the nature of Bosworth’s statement—that it “would” be a big deal, not that it will or will be. Spokesman Ryan Daniels clarified the word “wanted,” in bold and italics, in an email exchange with WIRED about the discrepancy between Stone’s claim that NameTag did not exist and Bosworth’s brief explanation.
“There are no contradictions. Boz says that this ‘could’ be a good thing, especially to answer the calls of the blind and visually impaired to help them identify people they’ve met before or want to remember,” Daniels tells WIRED in a statement. “Even though we’re researching this, it’s not available to consumers today. We think it’s important for people to understand that this is different from connecting glasses to public spaces around the world, which is not what we do.”
To be honest, NameTag was only available about six weeks ago. Meta has been developing NameTag since early 2025—a facial recognition app, assembling a pipeline of identification and matching, and adding it to the millions of phones the app runs, where it stayed until WIRED reported on it. While it wasn’t possible for people to use it without special equipment, WIRED’s analysis of Meta AI’s code, as well as that of two independent experts, found the face recognition technology within the app that millions of people have on their phones. That system still exists, if you take Bosworth’s discussion of it at face value.
