Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that he would be rolling out more hands-free features for the Ray-Ban Stories smart glasses. Ray-Ban Stories users can now make calls, hear messages read, and send encrypted messages via WhatsApp.
With this update, users can make calls and send messages on WhatsApp hands-free by saying, “Hey Facebook, send a message to…” or “Hey Facebook, call…”
In addition, users can also find out the contents of whatsApp messages that have just entered. The device will read aloud the contents of the message, shortly after the message arrives. For example, “New message on WhatsApp from : Is now a good time to talk?”
Reported by TechCrunch (15/7), Meta also plans to add the ability to reply to incoming messages on Messenger and WhatsApp hands-free. Users only need to say, “Hey Facebook, reply” after the glasses read out a new message.
The company says private messages and calls will be automatically secured with end-to-end encryption. This means, WhatsApp, Meta and third parties cannot read or listen to the message.
Once the voice assistant identifies the voice command associated with a WhatsApp call or message, the voice and audio transcripts are not stored on any servers.
The update is rolling out to the Facebook View iOS and Android apps in stages and will be available to all users in the coming days. Meta says users should make sure they have the latest app and firmware updates on their glasses.
