# An app now warns you when Meta smart glasses are nearby

Source: https://idevice.com/an-app-now-warns-you-when-meta-smart-glasses-are-nearby
Published: 2026-09-10

> Zuckoff reads the Bluetooth signals smart glasses broadcast and estimates how close a pair is. Its developer wants glasses makers to adopt the kind of alert phones already give for stray trackers.

Pawel Szydlowski kept seeing videos of people who had no idea they were being filmed. So the Polish developer built an app that tells you when a pair of smart glasses is close by.

It's called Zuckoff, and it arrived on Apple's App Store last month. Business Insider reported that it has picked up 5,000 users since then. The app listens for the Bluetooth signals that compatible glasses broadcast, picks out the ones that match a known pair, and estimates how near they are. Some of those signals carry identifiers tied to Meta or Ray-Ban, which is what lets a phone recognize them at all.

The free version shows a proximity reading while it's open. A paid tier, Zuckoff Pro, sends a notification when it spots recording-capable glasses even with the app closed.

Meta's answer to bystanders has always been the light on the frame. Andrew Bosworth, the company's chief technology officer, said the camera was designed "to be noticed by the people around you." That light has had a rough few months. Meta [patched it twice in two months](https://idevice.com/meta-patched-its-recording-light-twice-in-two-months), first to shut the camera off when the diode was damaged and then to stop recording when it was covered. It also disabled thousands of glasses after finding their indicator lights had been tampered with.

A light only helps if you're looking at the wearer's face. A phone in your pocket doesn't need you to look at anything.

Szydlowski's bigger idea borrows from something most people already carry. Apple and Google built a shared system that warns an iPhone or Android owner when an unfamiliar Bluetooth tracker seems to be traveling with them. He wants glasses makers to agree on the same kind of thing for cameras, so any phone could flag a recording device nearby without a separate app matching signals against a list.

That matching is the limit today. Zuckoff can only find glasses whose Bluetooth traffic it recognizes, and what it reports is that a known pair is nearby. It sees the glasses. It doesn't see the recording.

Other companies are working on the problem from the wearer's side. HTC's Vive Eagle [won't record unless someone is wearing it](https://idevice.com/htc-lets-a-bystander-say-stop-filming), and it stops filming if a bystander says "stop filming."

Szydlowski said EU regulators have contacted him to ask for more information about the app.