Meta has already reportedly explored facial recognition for its smart glasses.
Code for a facial recognition feature that can work on Meta smart glasses is buried in the company’s Meta AI app, according to a new report from Wired. While it’s not currently enabled, available to customers, or part of a previously announced feature, the code appears to be further evidence that Meta is thinking about how facial recognition could work with its smart glasses, like The New York Times first reported in February.
The feature, called “NameTag” in the code Wired found, would be able to capture people’s faces using the company’s smart glasses and later notify the wearer when they recognize a previously captured face. No part of NameTag currently runs or sends biometric data to Meta’s servers, according to a security researcher who examined the code. Wired found, but previous versions of the Meta AI app included interface elements for the feature, such as a “Connections” menu that suggests users “remember people you’ve met.”
Anonymous meta sources who spoke to The New York Times similarly, the company’s facial recognition tool is called “Name Tag”. According to a memo reviewed during the report, Meta was interested in launching the feature in a “dynamic political environment” in the United States because “civil society groups that we expect to attack us would focus their resources on other concerns.” While a pair of smart glasses that can identify the faces of visually impaired users has potential accessibility benefits, the feature also poses serious ethical concerns.
“Regardless of any sensational reporting, the facts are simple: We’ve said before that we’re exploring these kinds of features, and what you’re seeing is just evidence of that exploration,” Meta’s Ryan Daniels said in a statement to Woozad. “Nothing has been shipped to consumers and no final decision has been made on what, if anything, to do here. If we decide to roll out something, we will take a thoughtful approach and do so with complete transparency. A decision we can be clear about: We are not building a central database of faces.”
Meta previously used facial recognition on Facebook as part of the platform’s photo tagging features, but removed the technology in 2021 over privacy concerns. The company introduced facial recognition to Instagram and Facebook again in 2024, this time as a security tool to detect faces used in fraudulent ads. Beyond the existence of the code and Meta’s long-standing interest in facial recognition, there is no indication that Name Tag will be part of a future pair of Meta’s Ray-Ban or Oakley smart glasses. It is intriguing, however, that evidence of this functionality continues to appear.
Update, June 4 at 5:04 p.m. ET: Added a Meta declaration to Wiredthe report.
