Meta plans to add facial recognition to its smart glasses, report claims

Meta is planning to bring facial recognition to its smart glasses as soon as this year, according to a new report from The New York Times. The capability is reportedly being developed under the internal name “Name Tag”. It would allow smart-glasses wearers to identify the person they are looking at and pull up information about them via Meta’s AI assistant.

The report notes that Meta’s approach is not final and could still shift. Internally, the company has been weighing the rollout since early last year, in part because the feature involves what the report describes as significant “safety and privacy risks.” Meta has been debating how to ship a tool that can recognise faces in real-world settings without sparking major backlash or creating obvious avenues for misuse.

An internal memo referenced in the report stated that the company at one point planned to introduce Name Tag first to attendees of a conference for the visually impaired before moving to a broader release. That plan ultimately did not happen, according to the report.

The New York Times also reports that Meta viewed the political situation in the United States as an advantageous moment to launch the feature.

“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,” the document reads.

This is not the first time Meta has explored facial recognition for its glasses. The company reportedly considered including facial recognition in the earliest version of its Ray-Ban smart glasses back in 2021. Still, it abandoned the idea due to technical limitations and ethical concerns. The Times reports that Meta has revived those efforts, citing a shifting climate: the Trump administration has drawn closer to major tech firms, and Meta has seen unexpected momentum and popularity with its smart glasses.