Meta announced at Connect that its holographic avatars are coming to its new VR glasses and Ray-Ban Display frames. The company's demo left an Engadget reporter impressed: during a WhatsApp call, she initially mistook an avatar for a real person, a notable leap from Meta's earlier attempts at digital likeness.
Setup for the display glasses takes about five minutes. Users scan their face with a phone camera and answer questions about their voice and personality, which trains the Muse Realtime Avatar model to approximate expressions during live calls. The VR glasses take a different approach, using inward-facing cameras and sensors to capture facial expressions in real time and generate a full-body avatar without a separate training session.
The technology is still in an early preview with clear limitations. Avatars show only a frontal view, and the reporter noticed distortion near the feet and blurring at the edges of the head. Availability is also device-specific: Ray-Ban Display users can only call other Ray-Ban Display users, and VR glasses users can only call other VR glasses users. A transparent watermark appears on all avatar video calls to prevent confusion.
For business users, the avatars could offer a convenient way to join meetings without being fully camera-ready; Meta reps told the reporter they often call into work meetings as their avatars. The feature also positions Meta against Apple's Persona avatars, which the reporter found less natural. Holographic avatars will enter early access on Meta Ray-Ban Display this fall.