Meta Smart Glasses to Get FDA-Cleared OTC Hearing Aid Feature
Hearing Enhancement will use an in-app assessment to personalize amplification for adults with perceived mild to moderate hearing loss. Meta says it will arrive on compatible glasses in the U.S. later this year.)
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Later this year, Meta plans to turn some of its smart glasses into -cleared over-the-counter hearing aids with a $149.99 software upgrade. Announced by CEO Mark Zuckerberg at Meta Connect, Hearing Enhancement will personalize amplification for U.S. adults with perceived mild to moderate hearing loss.
That is a change from Conversation Focus, the speech-boosting feature HearingTracker previously reported on and tested through HearAdvisor. Conversation Focus amplifies the person in front of the wearer, particularly in noisy settings. Although HearingAdvisor’s lab testing found that it could provide useful hearing help, Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2 glasses with that feature were not marketed as hearing aids and did not tailor amplification to an individual hearing loss profile.
The new Hearing Enhancement feature is intended specifically for adults with mild to moderate hearing loss. Zuckerberg said users will complete a guided hearing test in the app, after which the glasses will adjust amplification to their results.
“So, one question that we have been a little obsessed with is what if the glasses gave you the superpower to hear what is going on around you better?” said Zuckerberg at Meta Connect. “…Now I am really proud that we are releasing something that goes much further [than Conversation Focus]: Hearing Enhancement turns your glasses into an -cleared over-the-counter hearing aid that can compensate for perceived mild to moderate hearing loss. And, as we tested this out, it became really clear that this had the potential to be life-changing for a lot of people. So, we want to share one of those stories today.”
Zuckerberg then showed a video featuring fashion designer Lindsay Jones, who described the gradual hearing loss in her left ear and how background noise causes her to miss parts of conversations. Jones said the feature helped her hear a friend’s story and feel more present with her children.
Mark Zuckerberg, Meta CEOSo, now instead of spending thousands of dollars on a hearing aid, people can just add the Hearing Enhancement option to Meta Glasses for a fraction of the price. You don't need to visit a clinic or go through the whole [prescription fitting] process. You just take a guided assessment using our glasses in the app, and then you can get your amplification tuned to your specific hearing loss. Hearing enhancement is coming first to Meta Glasses, and like all of our software features, we're going to roll it out more broadly soon. But overall, I think that this is a really big deal and I'm really proud of our team for pulling this off. This is quite a technical achievement, and I think it's going to matter a lot to a lot of people.
Where can you get Meta’s Hearing Enhancement?
Meta says Hearing Enhancement will be available later this year and will cost $149.99 to add to compatible glasses or be available through a Meta One subscription. There’s also an option to try a 30-day trial before committing. The company says the feature will be eligible for payment through a U.S. health savings account or flexible spending account, subject to the account’s rules.
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At this writing, Meta has not yet published a list of frames or specified when Ray-Ban models might gain the Hearing Enhancement feature. According to Engadget, Ray-Ban models are not included in the initial rollout. Therefore, buyers should confirm that a model supports Hearing Enhancement before purchasing it for hearing aid use.
At Connect, Meta separately introduced Ray-Ban Meta Audio, camera-free glasses starting at $349 and scheduled to ship October 13, and Ray-Ban Meta Gen 3, which has a camera. However, neither announcement established that those models will support Hearing Enhancement at launch.
A New Vision for Hearing Glasses
The announcement puts Meta in a different position from when HearingTracker first examined Conversation Focus. In HearAdvisor’s testing, Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2 glasses earned a B SoundGrade as a hearable with Conversation Focus engaged. However, this should not be taken as a test of Hearing Enhancement; the HearAdvisor lab has not yet released or evaluated the new hearing aid feature.
Meta’s eyewear partner EssilorLuxottica, which owns the Ray-Ban brand, already sells a dedicated hearing aid product, Nuance Audio Glasses and just this week released its latest model, Nuance Audio Plus (also see Dr. Beck and Harel-Arbeli’s science review of OTC and Nuance). HearingTracker will continue to follow these developments on our Hearing Glasses page.
The hearing glasses form factor, including real-time captioning glasses, holds great promise for people with hearing loss and for “normal-hearing” people who struggle with speech comprehension in noise. Meta joins Apple and Samsung in bringing -cleared OTC hearing aid software to familiar consumer devices; Apple introduced its feature in Airpods Pro 2 in 2024, while Samsung's Galaxy Buds feature will roll out in late 2026.
So the key question is how Meta’s new personalized feature will perform in daily use, particularly when background noise, battery life, and the open-ear design are put to the test. And will it perform as well or better than the currently available options?
Karl Strom
Editor in ChiefKarl Strom is the editor-in-chief of HearingTracker. He was a founding editor of The Hearing Review and has covered the hearing aid industry for over 30 years.