Meta Connect 2024 live reporting – will we finally see the Quest 3S and Meta AR glasses?

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Lance is at Menlo Park Campus, has his badge, and is ready for Meta Connect 2024 to begin!

He also got given a couple of pins (I'm very jealous) and  while one is just the word 'Connect' inside a box the other shows a few shapes (a star, triangle and circle) floating next to each other. Maybe it has a meaning we'll learn more about during Connect, or maybe it's just meant to look nice. 

We'll know either way in a couple of hours.

We'll be here from now until a little after the keynote ends covering all of the announcements as they happen, but if you want to watch the keynote live for yourself what are your options?

Assuming you can't attend in person then option one is to head to the Meta for Developers Facebook page and tune into the livestream there when it goes live.

Option two is to put on your Meta Quest headset, boot up Horizon Worlds, and attend a virtual version of Meta Connect being hosted at a VR space inspired by Menlo Park campus.

If you miss the event you can usually catch the presentation later on Meta's YouTube channel.

We know for certain that Meta AI will make an appearance at Connect 2024, and there's a few announcements I'm hoping to see.

The first is a global rollout of the AI on Meta's hardware, or at least a UK launch. Currently Meta AI is only officially out on the Quest 3 and Ray-Ban smart glasses in the US and Canada (so I was surprised that I somehow have access to it on my smart glasses here in the UK, though I'm not complaining). Considering how fun the feature is I really want more people to have access to it on their Meta devices.

I'd also like to see the Meta AI not only gain some of the abilities we've recently seen added to Google Gemini, Apple Intelligence, and ChatGPT to bring it on par with its rivals, but perhaps some uniquely Meta tools. 

Perhaps the ability to generate mixed-reality objects using AI prompts that you can then interact with using your Quest headset, or a Messenger assistant that uses your contacts' Facebook info to remind you about things like an upcoming Birthday.

I'm spit balling a bit here, but you get the picture. I'm hoping the next few years we'll see each AI assistant generate its own unique identity rather than each being effectively a carbon copy of what's already out there.

So we've gone through the Meta Quest 3S, and the Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses on the hardware side at Meta Connect, what about the software we might see get shown off?

We'll probably hear a little bit about VR gaming at Connect, in particular Batman: Arkham Shadow. It's a Meta Quest 3 exclusive launching sometime in October so I wouldn't be surprised if we got another trailer and a firm release date for it.

We might also see a few other VR and MR games because we didn't get a dedicated Quest Gaming Showcase this Summer. Meta didn't have its own space to showcase trailers so it may take a little bit of time to do that Connect.

The one subject I'm certain will be talked about however is AI, and how Meta's own artificial intelligence has been progressing since the last time it gave us an update.

Our Editor At Large Lance Ulanoff was scoping out Meta's HQ yesterday ahead of today's event and took the above snap. He'll be attending the keynote later today so he can see everything that's announced first-hand.

AR has been the talk of the town in the XR space, and so I think we'll get a taste of what Meta's cooking up for its own AR glasses. 

Beyond their existence and that they'll combine AR and AI technologies as a sort of hybrid of Meta's hardware efforts to date (its AI smart glasses and its VR headsets) we know next to nothing about them. Though given Meta recently reupped its partnership with Ray-Ban I expect these AR glasses would continue to sport the brand's iconic design.

A Meta Connect teaser would allow Meta to show the world what it has been working on, though I expect Zuckerberg won't go into details like price or a release date. Instead I'm envisioning a trailer like the Meta Quest Pro teaser we got at Connect 2021 when it was announced as Project Cambria.

Project Cambria Teaser - 'High End' Standalone Headset Launching 2022 - YouTube

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Zuckerberg might appear on stage in a prototype, or show us a more in-depth demo, but I doubt they'd be ready for members of the public or press to give them a whirl. So don't expect a hands-on feature from us unfortunately.

I predict we'll have to wait until at least 2025 (but perhaps even 2026 or 2027) to actually get to try the Meta AR Glasses for ourselves, but maybe I'll get proven wrong later today.

Right out the gate I'm going to say I don't think we'll get a whole new pair of Meta smart glasses this year. Maybe a new design of the existing hardware could make an appearance, but don't hold your breath for a hardware upgrade.

My reasoning? One, we've seen zero leaks for it which seems odd next to the Meta Quest 3S which has had a boatload of leaks wash up on our shores. If new specs were also coming I feel we'd know even just a little bit of info about them.

Two, it's way too soon. Meta AI integration (which is the biggest selling point and best feature of the Ray-Ban smart specs) hasn't even made its way to every region where the current-gen glasses are sold, so it would be odd to launch a follow-up now when the old model isn't even complete yet.

Three, I think Meta is going to tease a different kind of glasses instead.

That's enough Meta Quest 3S talk, lets get into Meta's other big hardware focus and discuss potential Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses Connect announcements.

$299 Quest 3S 128GB Confirmed by Amazon Ad on Peacock from r/OculusQuest

And how much will the Meta Quest 3S cost? 

Well as with the previous rumors everything should be taken with a pinch of salt but a supposed leaked Amazon advert (above) for the headset says it starts at $299.99 which suggests the VR headset could end up being $299.99 / £299.99 / AU$479.99 for its base model, which is the same price as the what the Quest 2 settled at before it got some dramatic price cuts earlier this year.

So this would be for the rumored 128GB Quest 3S, with the model with more storage (likely either 256GB or 512GB) then probably landing somewhere around $399.99 / £399.99 / AU$599.99 to use the Meta Quest 2's pricing structure.

As for the specs it'll sit between the Meta Quest 3 and the Meta Quest 2 according to the rumors. So it'll boast a Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 chipset from the Quest 3, but displays that are only 1,832 x 1,920 pixels per eye like those found in the Quest 2. They will, however, supposedly boast a variable refresh rate that supports 90Hz and 120Hz playback.

We haven't heard about its RAM but I have a feeling it might only offer 6GB instead of 8GB as a further cost cutting measure to keep it more affordable. Though 8GB would be ideal especially for any AI functions Meta might add to Quest at Connect or beyond, as well as for multitasking in mixed reality, so we'll have to wait and see what's announced

Sticking with the Meta Quest 3S design, there are a few extra details to unpack from this leak.

As you can see on the front face in the Twitter image the Quest 3S will supposedly boast some mixed reality sensors. We're expecting those to be for full-color mixed reality and be roughly of the same quality as the cameras we've seen on the Meta Quest 3 proper.

Just below the left set of cameras as we look at the headset you'll see a volume bar (fairly standard) and a new button. We've heard this is an 'Action Button' like you'd find on an iPhone 16. 

By default it'll apparently swap between passthrough and VR like the side of the headset double-tap feature on the Meta Quest 3, but you might also be able to customize it to perform other tasks like launching an app.

Let's start with the announcement that seems most likely: the Meta Quest 3S.

Nothing has yet been said officially but as is usual with tech announcements several details have leaked early; some information about the headset's existence even came from Meta itself like when it accidentally named the new device on its official app store.

We know more than its name though, with leaks even showing us the headset's design early:

As you can see in the Twitter post, the device looks like a Quest 2 in terms of how bulky it is because it reportedly uses the older model's fresnel lens system rather than the Quest 3's pancake lenses.

I won't get too into the weeds here, just know that fresnel lens systems are usually chunkier than pancake ones and can lead to images being a little less sharp. That said pancake lenses aren't perfect, they typically lose more light meaning images viewed through fresnel lenses can appear brighter.

Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening folks! We're just under seven hours from the start of the Meta Connect 2024 keynote, so until it kicks off I'm going to run you through some of the updates we're expecting to see based on the leaks and rumors so far.