Meta Connect 2024: how to watch and what to expect

Next week, Meta will hold its annual Connect developer conference, showcasing a ton of expected and perhaps surprising new VR and AR hardware—alongside a potentially extensive Meta AI presentation featuring the company's latest large-language model, Llama, and the image generator in apps like WhatsApp.

And if Meta discontinues custom tools for AR filters, we could end up seeing a whole new set of developer tools designed to leverage generative AI experiences. Perhaps it will all come together in Meta's next big push into its alternate reality ideas (and namesakes) in the metaverse, including major Horizon Worlds updates.

However, the most anticipated products to be unveiled during the conference are the successor to the Meta Quest 3 and possibly updates to Meta and Raybans, which are very cool smart glasses. Hopefully we will see the rumored “Orion” AR glasses, but we'll have to attend the Connect keynote to find out.

This year’s Meta Connect developer conference begins on Wednesday, September 25, 2024and ends the next day on Thursday, September 26. The conference begins with the Connect keynote, delivered by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, at 1:00 p.m. ET / 10:00 a.m. PTimmediately followed by a developer keynote at 2:00 p.m. ET (11:00 a.m. PT). Meta has a full program schedule on the Connect site.

The Meta Connect keynote will be streamed live on the official Meta Connect website. If you're using a Quest headset, you can also watch it on Horizon Worlds. Following the keynotes, you can join live developer sessions on Facebook for deeper insights into AI and mixed reality.

The most exciting thing about Meta is that it holds the keys to the closest thing to mainstream VR headsets with the Quest 2 and Quest 3. However, the latter launched at too high a price ($500 compared to the now $200 Quest 2) and didn't have a very sharp AR video passthrough. Now we're expecting a cheaper version, the Quest “3S,” which leaks suggest could sell for as little as $299.99.

Meta also has other new VR headsets in the pipeline, including a new Quest 4 for 2026 and a pro-level spatial computing model internally dubbed “La Jolla” due out in 2027. Recent reports suggest that plans for the latter may be on hold for now, especially with Apple's $3,500 Vision Pro struggling to gain traction. We may not see those models specifically at Connect, but other models in the pipeline could appear.

Also expect an update on the futuristic Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses at Connect. The current glasses look clean and aren't too clunky, but they're ripe for an iterative update, even if AR features aren't coming. The glasses respond to your commands with Meta AI, so expect new chatbot assistant experiences soon.

Meta is also working on new mixed reality glasses, internally named “Orion,” which we can expect to see at least a glimpse of. Snap recently let us wear its new AR glasses, but these are for developers only, and a former Snap engineer on the project called them “obviously bad.” Hopefully, what we see from Orion is much more interesting.

With Meta's VR strategy come expectations for new software and experiences, including the future of games on Quest. Currently, there are questions about what Meta is doing for games: It is closing the game studio Ready at Dawn, which makes immersive 3D games like EchoVRwhile casual games like Wordle are coming onto the market. Meta, meanwhile, recently released an app that lets you play console games on the headset via HDMI.