Meta Ray-Ban Display Finally Leaves the US, Months After Meta Hit Pause

If you live in London or Toronto and wanted Meta's glasses with a screen in them, your options for the past year were a trip to the US or a lot of patience. Starting today, you can order a pair at home.

Meta Ray-Ban Display is on sale today in the UK for £749 and in Canada for CA$1,149, online and in stores in London, Vancouver, and Toronto. Pre-orders open in stages today in France, Italy, and Germany at €899, with online ordering and in-store sales starting October 13. In the US, where Display has sold for $799 since last fall, you can now order it online instead of booking a trip to a store.

The pause, and the catch-up

This rollout was supposed to happen months ago. In January, Meta paused its plan to bring Display to the UK, France, Italy, and Canada in early 2026, citing "unprecedented demand and limited inventory" and US waitlists that stretched "well into 2026." It said it would keep filling US orders and re-evaluate international availability. Germany wasn't on that January list at all. Commenters on Engadget's Connect live blog were still pointing out tonight that Display had never left the US.

The hardware hasn't changed. It's one Wayfarer-style frame with a small display in the right lens, and it still comes bundled with the Meta Neural Band, the wristband that reads muscle signals so you can scroll and select with small finger gestures. Prescription lenses arrive October 13 through EssilorLuxottica partners in France and Italy, and in Germany later this year. In-store sales in Europe, starting October 13, cover only Paris, Milan, Rome, Frankfurt, Hamburg, and Munich, which matters for a product you'll want to try on before spending €899.

What the software update adds

Navigation gets the most useful upgrade. Display already handled walking directions in select cities. Now it adds turn-by-turn cycling directions and real-time transit departures, both started by voice, rolling out in the US and Canada later this month. Walking directions will also lean on landmarks, so the glasses tell you to "turn left at the yellow house" instead of naming Third Street. That's how people give directions to each other, and it suits a screen you glance at mid-stride.

Hologram is the flashier addition. You capture your face in the Meta AI app, and Meta builds a photorealistic avatar that appears for you on video calls. Your voice drives it entirely, and the model guesses your expression from what you're saying. It arrives in Early Access on WhatsApp for US users this fall. I'm curious and a little wary, because an avatar that reads your mood from your words is going to get sarcasm wrong.

The rest of the update fills gaps: on-glasses photo editing, Dolby Atmos video capture and playback (Meta calls it the first consumer device to do both), phone notifications mirrored to the display (coming soon, according to Meta), a calendar that shows attendees and lets you accept invites or join meetings, Threads Community Feeds, and a new Explore app for finding experiences built for the glasses.

Who should order

£749 and CA$1,149 are real money for a first-generation product with one frame style and a display in one eye. Several of tonight's headline features are also region-locked for now. Hologram is US-only, cycling and transit directions are US and Canada only, and Meta hasn't said when either reaches the UK or Europe. If you're in London, you're buying the glasses Americans got last year, plus the parts of this update that aren't tied to a country.

The biggest missing feature on Meta Ray-Ban Display was being able to buy it where you live. Meta shipped that one tonight, in five countries.