I haven’t been a fan of Facebook (Meta’s child company) since it was a standalone website back in my college days. Even then, that experience was short-lived. However, for the first time since, I paused to consider setting up a “burner” Meta account. My sole reason? To try out the Ray-Ban Meta Glasses with Be My Eyes and see what they offer the visually impaired community.

Apparently, people with vision loss are doing some pretty interesting things with this combination, gaining more freedom in their daily lives. For example, they’re using the Meta glasses to call up a volunteer for help with tasks like:

• Configuring computer BIOS settings
• Playing video games
• Performing daily tasks hands-free

All of these possibilities are extremely enticing to me. My only real drawback to jumping on this technology right away is Meta.

Then again, I recently read about another similar pair of glasses that aren’t released yet—not until October, if memory serves. These are the Ally Solos Glasses, a product of the Solos and Envision partnership. Given Envision is a known assistive technology company, these glasses might be more tailored to visually impaired users, as Envision has extensive experience in that area.

Maybe I just talked myself into a solution that will work for me? I’ll definitely look more into the Ally Solos Glasses. If I like what I see, I may just pre-order them to see how they work in practice.