I Wear Ray-Ban Meta Sunglasses Every Day, and Here Are My Nine Favorite Hidden Features
I’ve been wearing the Ray-Ban Meta for eight months now , and I’m still discovering all the cool things you can do with them. While everyone knows about the buzzy features like translating languages and using AI to describe what you see, there are plenty of other ways to use these glasses that you might not have thought of. Here are some of my favorites, as well as what you definitely shouldn’t do with the Ray-Ban Meta.
Set a timer
This is what inspired this whole post. I can’t believe I just realized yesterday that you can say, “Hey Meta, set a timer for five minutes.” Once you set the timer, your glasses will keep track of the time, and when the timer is up, an alarm will go off. It’s a small thing, but it’s really handy when you’re cooking.
Broadcasting video in WhatsApp
In my first review, I talked about the Ray-Ban Meta’s live-streaming capability, but I wanted to reiterate how great this feature is and go into more detail about how it works. During a WhatsApp video call, tap the glasses icon. Then double-tap the camera button on the glasses, and the view will switch to your glasses’ camera, allowing your friend to “see through your eyes.” Double-tap again to switch back.
Take a selfie
Your glasses don’t turn off when you take them off your face, so you can turn them toward you and press the shutter button to take a selfie or video.
Speak in the voice of a celebrity
I assume most people don’t change the settings to have Meta speak with celebrity voices like John Cena, Awkwafina, or Kristin Bell because it sounds like the most annoying idea ever, but surprisingly, it’s not. Meta’s celebrities don’t “speak like the characters,” and their voices sound more natural and human than Meta AI’s default robotic voices. Plus, it’s impossible to even tell which celebrity they’re voicing — they’re essentially just extra voices.
Connect to a live person
This feature isn’t intended for the general public, but it’s a fantastic feature for people with visual impairments. Meta’s partnership with Be My Eyes allows you to use your Meta glasses to connect with a sighted volunteer who will provide you with hands-free visual assistance. However, you’ll need to register and be verified to do so.
Summarize the text
You can ask Meta to summarize any text by saying, “Hey Meta, look at this and summarize it,” and the AI will give you the gist of whatever you show it, whether it’s an email or the pages of a novel. And it does a pretty good job of it, too.
Play the Travel Quiz
If you’re bored on a long trip, you can ask your glasses to “ask you a simple question.” You can also specify categories and ask them to come up with harder or easier questions. But keep in mind that this is artificial intelligence, so it’s not always right. (More on that below.)
Explain the rules of the board game.
If you’re learning with audio and you’ve got a new board game, you can ask Meta to explain the rules of the game or ask him questions like, “Is it okay to use slang words in Scrabble?” But keep in mind that the AI sources pretty much everything , and he doesn’t know the difference between the common “house rules” and the official rules.
Briefly outline the contents of the book
If you show Meta a book, you can ask her to give you a summary of it, as well as information about how it was received by critics and readers. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to get information about where to buy a specific book or how much it costs, but you can get an idea of what it’s about and how good it is.
Just don’t take it too seriously.
Like all large language models of artificial intelligence, Meta AI is often wrong, and it is confident in its mistakes. If you ask Meta AI to identify a plant, it will answer, but it might name something different. If you ask, “What is the chemical symbol for gold?” it will answer, “O,” probably because it is phonetically pronounced as “Ow.” If you ask it what chord you play on the piano, it will always answer, “C major.” You get the idea. Although Meta AI will sometimes answer the question with “I can’t tell,” this is a waste of time, because apparently saying “not sure” is a human trait.
And don’t ask Meta to tell you a joke. It’s not funny at all .