Meta just became the first major smart glasses brand to put a usage cap on a headline feature, and the floodgates are likely now wide open. Conversation Focus, the feature that isolates and amplifies whoever you're talking to in loud settings, is now capped at three hours a month for anyone not paying for a subscription. This affects every Meta glasses model that includes the feature, including Ray-Ban Meta and the new Meta Glasses line. Meta Display currently does not support Conversation Focus.
Meta One Premium isn't a glasses-specific plan. It launched in May as Meta's first paid AI tier, bundling deeper reasoning and expanded image and video generation across Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp, along with extra social features on those apps.
Meta isn't the first company to build a subscription into smart glasses. L'Atitude 52°N's Berlin and Milan glasses give AI features free for the first 12 months, capped at 100 to 200 minutes a month even during that free period, before an unpriced Pro tier takes over. MemoMind One, which opened for orders this week, keeps its translation, captions, teleprompter, and AI assistant free with no cap, but charges $19.99 a month for an optional AI journaling feature.
If this trend continues, which it likely will, anyone wearing glasses, a ring, and a watch or fitness tracker at once could end up managing subscriptions like they're selecting channels in a cable package.
Smart rings are already one of the worst offenders. Market leader Oura charges $5.99 a month just to unlock the Readiness and Sleep scores that are one of the main reasons people buy the ring in the first place. Smartwatches are catching up too. Garmin added a $6.99 monthly Connect+ tier last year for deeper training insights, though the core watch still works fully without it. WHOOP goes further, requiring a monthly membership just to turn the device on.
The end result is likely growing pressure for users to lock into a single ecosystem, as all of these devices — such as rings acting as a way to control smart glasses — start working together and relying on each other to unlock their full capabilities.