I already love to use all of Meta’s AI glasses when I leave the house, and now I’ve got a new reason to love the camera that comes on (almost) every pair.
This summer, I did something I never thought I would do: I started running. “But Nick, why are you running if nothing is chasing you?” my friends joked snarkily. The reality is, yes, I do often run a little faster at times to avoid getting hit by a car, something that’s particularly problematic any time I have to cross a road (even if there’s a crosswalk).
That got me thinking. If cars have dashcams, what could someone do to help document a potential accident? There’s no chance I’m running while holding my phone, and I wouldn’t want it in my pocket either. I also wouldn’t be able to pull it out of one of those armband holsters fast enough to video a potential accident, either. Then I realized the answer was already on my face: my Meta glasses.
I’d already been taking my glasses out on every run to make short video clips to post to my Strava account — with my smartwatch health stats plastered on the video, too — so it made a lot of sense to just take a few more clips along the way. Now I have a personal running dashcam at all times, and it takes less than a second to capture a video whenever I need it.
Is this really convenient?
Maybe surprisingly, yes, using Meta glasses as a dashcam is quite convenient. Since I already wore my Meta Nova and Oakley Meta HSTN glasses on regular runs, I didn’t have to significantly change my behavior. I already look out for cars when I cross the street (my mama taught me well); all I have to do now is hold the camera button to start a video recording if I see one coming.
I’ve got my Meta glasses set to record 3 minutes at a time, so I’m not worried about missing a potential problem because the recording got cut short. Once I cross the road, I just press the button again and manually stop the recording.
Everything is saved to the glasses until it reconnects to my phone; then everything is synced automatically at that time. It’s as effortless as you can get, and it’s impressively good insurance if anything were to go awry on a run.
If I had to buy a new pair of Meta glasses today, there’s little chance I’d buy one without a camera. While there’s been some negativity surrounding the inclusion of the camera, there are far too many good reasons to have it available to use.
Runners who want to try this should give the Oakley Meta HSTN glasses a shot first, as they’ve got the tightest fit and the most “runner-like” style. Otherwise, the cheaper Meta-branded glasses (read: no Ray-Ban or Oakley branding onboard) are a better budget choice, especially since there’s no functional difference between any of Meta’s latest pairs. And, if you really want to stay away from Meta, Rokid AI Glasses are the best alternative I’ve used to date.
- Meta says it has fixed an issue that let its Ray-Ban smart glasses record on their own
- Meta rolling out audio upgrades, turn-by-turn navigation for Ray-Ban smart glasses
- Meta launches audio-only glasses and Gen 3 Ray-Ban with slimmer designs
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