My main desire as a spectacles user is that my lenses were better at staying clean. Facebook, on the other hand, appears to feel that wearing glasses would be more enjoyable if they could make calls, play music, and, um, capture photographs and videos of their surroundings.

You may activate the smart features of the glasses by saying “Hey, Facebook” or using the buttons and touchpads on the frame. The 5-megapixel cameras can record up to 35 30-second movies, and images or videos taken through the glasses are uploaded to an app called Facebook View over Bluetooth. You may modify your material and distribute it to other platforms using the app, which is free to download for iOS and Android. (For example, Instagram is owned by Facebook!) To use the glasses and log into the View app, you’ll need a Facebook account, but the app won’t automatically publish to your account.

But hold on! Isn’t this the same idea that Google and Snapchat tried a few years ago, only to get laughed out of town? Yes, they did! Google Glass, which went on sale in 2014 for a low price of $1,500, was quickly banned from bars, earning wearers the epithet “Glass-holes.” The Snapchat Spectacles, which cost $130 when they were released in 2016, also failed to catch on.

Apart from the lack of an alliterative moniker, Facebook’s smart glasses differ from their predecessors in terms of the functions they can do as well as their appearance. The sunglasses have traditional Ray-Ban frames with tiny lenses on the sides. (A white LED indication light next to the lenses will turn on when the camera is filming, allegedly to warn passerby that they’re in the shot.) If you prefer to wear your Ray-Ban Stories instead of glasses, you may get them adjusted with your prescription. Given Facebook’s rocky past with privacy, the thought of casually wearing the gadgets is causing some concern. It’s simple to cover the glasses’ indication light with tape, allowing the wearer to film anybody without alerting them. Even without that precaution, the white light might easily be mistaken for Ray-Bans’ signature silver frame decal. According to The New York Times, the View app encourages users to “respect individuals around you” and consider whether it “feels acceptable” to record photos or video, although I don’t anticipate much “respect” in 2021.

Those who have been waiting for Facebook to release smart glasses have now gotten their chance. For the rest of us, it’s Mark Zuckerberg’s universe, baby, and we’re simply a part of it.