Viral TikTok trend helping smart glasses recover from the disaster of Google Glass

Smart glasses have had a bad reputation ever since the Google Glass days. Despite iterations on the technology, public perception hasn’t changed much, and that’s made it hard for smart glasses to take off in any meaningful way.

That might be finally changing. The new Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses have enjoyed a viral boom on TikTok, resulting in hundreds of millions of views on some videos. Jules Terpak recently tweeted about the phenomenon, highlighting four examples. That’s just a small sample of the vast number of videos that feature Meta’s smart glasses in this style.

A trend has been going on with the Ray Ban Meta smart glasses the past two weeks on TikTok. One video has 123 million views — many others have millions

It’s unclear if it organically happened amongst those with large followings after one person’s video went crazy, or if there’s… pic.twitter.com/uWeemszkuK

— Jules Terpak (@julesterpak) December 17, 2023

TikTok star @kikakim scored over 15 million hearts by lip syncing to a sped-up version of Jungkook’s song 3D. The trend began a month ago with a post from @kakeguson earning more than 86 million views and 10 million likes, according to Know Your Meme.

wanna see it in motion in 3d (ray ban x meta glasses slay) rayban meta

♬ som original – W&K

This video, a simple song and dance recorded in a bathroom mirror, inspired a sudden rush of similar videos. You can see hundreds of people showing off their Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses and Snap Spectacles, as well as a few creative attempts without glasses on TikTok’s website.

The basic formula to create a similar video is to lip sync to a catchy tune while voguing with Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses, taking a phone selfie, or using reflective objects nearby for visual interest. Trends come and go, so there’s no guarantee you’ll find fame with smart glasses.

Many smart glasses include displays for watching videos, while others are audio-only, like Amazon’s Echo Frames. But the key to these viral videos with the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses is the hands-free video. Despite the size limitation, the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses capture great-quality photos and video with vibrant color and crisp enough details for TikTok or Instagram. The tiny camera is embedded in the upper-left corner of the frame and subtle enough that you wouldn’t notice it.

Content and originality with a healthy heap of luck is what’s most important, but the convenience of a wearable camera like the one on the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses makes it easy to capture a more personal viewpoint. As Terpak rightfully points out, the videos very well may be part of a targeted campaign by Meta. But in some ways, it doesn’t really matter. It’s the technology itself that’s piquing people’s interest in these viral videos.

With a wearable camera, you get an opportunity to capture a first-person perspective without strapping on a GoPro camera mount. The most popular posts make use of mirrors, a phone, and the Ray-Bans to show multiple angles in quick succession.

If smart glasses are ever going to take off in any substantial way, it’s going to require people being OK with wearing a computer on their face. The recent success of the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses might be the first time we’re starting to see public perception change, which is exciting for those of us who’ve been waiting for this technology to take off.

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Alan is a Computing Writer living in Nova Scotia, Canada. A tech-enthusiast since his youth, Alan stays current on what is…