Your Glasses Could Soon Send a Hologram of You to a Call

Meta said on September 23 at its Connect event that holographic avatars are coming to its new VR glasses and Meta Ray-Ban Display frames. Engadget

There are two types, and they are set up in different ways. For the Display glasses, you make your avatar in the Meta AI app. You scan your face with your phone from a few angles. Then you answer a few spoken questions so it learns your voice.

It takes about five minutes. You only need your phone. You do not need a headset or a special studio.

When it is ready, you can use the avatar on WhatsApp or Zoom video calls while wearing the glasses. It uses a Meta system called the Muse Realtime Avatar model, which guesses your facial expressions while you talk. Meta puts a clear watermark on video calls made with an avatar.

The VR-glasses version is different. It shows your full body. It uses small cameras and sensors inside the headset to watch your face, so you do not need to train it on expressions. One version uses the phone scan and software guesses. The other tracks you live in the headset.

Connect started on September 23. Cybernews This idea is not new. Meta first hinted at the avatars with its Project Orion AR glasses in 2024. Tom's Guide Meta states its Orion AR glasses let users video call friends and family to appear in the room beside them. Meta

The broader context here is how Meta built the system. The first scan is kept simple, like taking a few photos. The hard work happens live during the call. The open questions are delay on normal networks, mistakes when sound is noisy, and whether full-body images can run without overheating the glasses or draining power.

Looking at daily use, WhatsApp and Zoom matter. People can use avatars in calls they already make, not in a separate VR app. That makes it easier to try. It also makes clear labels more important. A clear watermark is a first step for a tool that can speak in your voice, but it will need to survive compression, cropping, and screen recording to be trusted.

In my view, setup is only half the story. Five minutes will get more people to try it. People will keep using it only if others accept talking to an avatar, and if the system is clearly marked as artificial without ruining the feeling of being there. If Meta gets that right, these avatars could show up in normal calls, not just demos.