The app now has a “hands-free” mode that can narrate the recipe steps.
When I reviewed Meta’s display glasses last year, I was really curious to see if they would be useful for cooking. I spend a lot of time trying new recipes, and being able to see the steps right in front of my eyes seemed much more convenient than having to repeatedly unlock and scroll through my phone with dirty hands.
Unfortunately, the glasses didn’t really hold up as a cooking aid. At the time, the only way to get recipe content was through Meta AI. And even when I tried the suggested recipes, the steps didn’t appear on screen long enough to complete them.
But Meta has now reignited my hope that smart glasses could save me some frustration while cooking dinner. The company introduced a new integration with the New York Times Cooking app that will bring its recipes to its display glasses and its broader line of display-less AI glasses. It’s not available yet, but we got a brief look at how it will work during the State of the Meta Developer Union at Connect.
Meta
The New York Times Cooking app is getting a new “hands-free mode” that will allow users to pair their glasses with the app to receive audio cues for the dish they are cooking. But the feature doesn’t just read the same steps listed in the app. “With editorial guidance from Cooking, we developed a system for restructuring lengthy steps into brief audio instructions, preserving the author’s expertise while providing ingredients and measurements online,” The New York Times“, explained AJ Chavar. The version for Meta’s Ray-Ban Display glasses will also keep the recipe steps brief, with each displayed on a card that users can navigate through as they go.
Chavar didn’t say when the app would be available on Meta’s glasses, but said hands-free mode would roll out “later this fall.”
