Several months after their release in the United States, the Ray-Ban Stories are available in France. The connected glasses designed by the famous brand in collaboration with Meta are a first step in sharing your content on the various social networks of Mark Zuckerberg’s firm.
It took six months before the French could also discover the famous connected glasses signed Meta and Ray-Ban. After the United States, Australia, Canada, Ireland, Italy and the United Kingdom, four new countries will be able to benefit from it, including France.
If you remember Snap’s Spectacles, which let you take photos and videos at your fingertips using smart glasses linked to your Snapchat account, you won’t be caught off guard. The Ray-Ban Stories, designed in partnership by the Meta group and EssilorLuxottica, the parent company of Ray-Ban, use exactly the same concept. But they improve several critical points: the variety of models and wider means of sharing, all accompanied by small more advanced functions.
Sharing your daily life in style
Announced and launched last September, the Ray-Ban Stories want to respond, according to Meta, to a different technological challenge: how to bring a connected dimension to glasses and not put something connected in a glasses format. A linguistic subtlety, but also in reflection. Ray-Ban’s know-how in eyewear has made it possible to design a whole range of models with different shapes, different styles, but also meeting different needs (Transitions lenses to go from a dark to a light environment without any problem, polarized or solar in particular).
As of March 17, the glasses are arriving in three new countries (Spain, Belgium, Austria — April 14 in France) and, to accompany these new markets, Ray-Ban and Meta are offering their product with new colors and new types of lenses that can be combined in a wide variety of configurations (round glossy black glasses with gray or brown Transitions lenses, iconic Ray-Ban Wayfarer model in matte or Shiny, etc.). In total, 28 different models will be offered by mid-April.
The Ray-Ban Stories look like fairly classic Ray-Ban glasses, especially in the sunglasses version with the logo that appears on the glass and weigh only a few grams more than the classic models. Wayfarer or Shiny Black brand.
They carry two 5 Mpex cameras to be able to take photos (long press on the top of the branch) or record a 30 or 60 second video (short press to start or stop). But the Ray-Ban Stories also have three microphones to take calls and add the promised quality sound to your videos. Contoured speakers on the temples allow you to hear without disturbing the people around you.
The Ray-Ban Stories boast 6 hours of battery life and recharges to 100% in 70 minutes, with quick charging to recover 50% battery in 30 minutes in the charging case which brings three additional charges to the glasses.
Note that connected glasses are not waterproof. They will not withstand splashes, immersion, prolonged passage under water or any other liquid.
A companion application to share even more simply
To enrich its product and multiply its uses, Meta adds new complementary functions. And in particular the arrival of voice control. By saying “Hey Facebook”, it will be possible to take a photo or record a video without touching the glasses, but also to manage music playback on Ray-Ban Stories, check the level of autonomy, make a call, send or listen to a message. It will work in French and Italian, in addition to English, from April.
Photos and videos taken with the Ray-Ban Stories are transferred via Bluetooth 5.0 to your iOS or Android smartphone via the Facebook View application. This is where it will be possible to edit and share your content to home services (Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger), but also other platforms such as Twitter or simply by saving it to your device’s camera roll .
Compared to its debut, the app will also offer more flexibility in its settings to manage the duration of videos, to be better informed of the battery level of the glasses or the storage space available on the frames (maximum 500 photos or 30 videos of 30 seconds).
Safety in light
On the security side, Meta necessarily needs to reassure potential users. Talking about metaverses once again, with a product that does not yet offer augmented reality or virtual reality to switch to for the moment, the possibility of sharing your photos on Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp or transferring them via a mobile application, it is normal that the company’s past also serves as a bit of a liability when it comes to personal data. However, the firm of Mark Zuckerberg assures it: the data does not fly away and the security, the confidentiality and the protection of these are a priority.
To reinforce this notion of security and confidentiality, an LED diode is also present near the photo sensor to warn as soon as it is in the recording phase.
What can these Ray-Ban Stories be used for? To have fun with your family and friends, to make it easier to take photos and videos to share on Meta’s social networks, to stay there even longer while enriching your interactions on the platform. The Californian firm praises the merits of its product for sharing slices of life (birth of a child, attractions, festive moments, visiting a city, etc.), gaining spontaneity and… taking a first step into the metaverse.
As much with its desire for social connections with the Oculus Quest 2, we can understand the open door to the virtual, as much the Ray-Ban Stories are a good anchor in a reality to be shared. But then nothing prevents you from virtualizing it online. With style.
Ray-Ban Stories prices and availability
The connected glasses are available in Belgium, Spain and Austria from this Thursday, March 17. They will arrive in France on April 14 at a price of 329 euros on the Ray-Ban website and in stores.
You can visit the Ray-Ban Instagram store to virtually test the models in augmented reality and find the Ray-Ban Stories adapted to your morphology and your style.
To follow us, we invite you to download our Android and iOS application. You can read our articles, files, and watch our latest YouTube videos.