TL;DR
A leaked Meta memo confirms that an AI pendant will enter testing next year. The company also plans “Wearables for Work” and expanded AI glasses.
Meta is developing an AI-powered pendant that plans to begin testing within the next year, according to an internal memo seen by The Information. The device is based on the Limitless acquisition that Meta completed in late 2025. Limitless created a pendant that users could clip to their shirt or wear as a necklace to record and transcribe conversations.
The memo also outlines plans to expand Meta’s line of AI glasses and launch an enterprise subscription called Wearables for Work. The enterprise level would position Meta’s hardware as a productivity tool rather than a consumer novelty. Reality Labs, Meta’s hardware division, lost $4 billion in the first quarter of 2026 alone.
The hanging category of AI has a troubled history. Humane’s AI Pin launched in 2024 to withering reviews and effectively disappeared within a year, with HP acquiring the startup’s assets for $116 million. Friend, another hanging AI startup, spent more than $1 million on subway ads and struggled to find users. Neither device offered enough utility to justify the use of an additional device.
Meta’s approach is different in one important way. You already have a working wearables business. Meta sold more than seven million Ray-Ban smart glasses in 2025 and controls approximately 82% of the smart glasses market. The pendant would be a second form factor in an ecosystem that has demonstrated consumer demand, not an independent product that bets on a category that does not yet exist.
Limitless raised more than $33 million from investors including Sam Altman and Andreessen Horowitz before being acquired by Meta. CEO Dan Siroker said at the time that Meta’s vision for “personal superintelligence” through wearable devices aligned with what Limitless was building. The startup stopped selling devices to new customers after the acquisition, but continued to support existing users.
The subscription to Wearables for Work is the most commercially interesting detail of the memo. Meta glasses already integrate with Meta AI for voice queries, real-time translation and visual identification. An enterprise level could add meeting transcription, environmental note taking, CRM integration, and hands-free access to workplace tools. The concept mirrors Microsoft’s Copilot subscription model, but is delivered via hardware rather than software.
The wearables market is fragmenting into different categories. Apple Watch dominates the smartwatch segment, but is losing momentum to screenless health trackers. Oura has filed for an initial public offering (IPO). Whoop and Google’s Fitbit Air emphasize passive data collection. Meta’s pendant would fall into a fourth category: ambient AI capture, the always-on recording device that complements, rather than replaces, a phone.
The privacy implications are significant. Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses have already faced lawsuits and regulatory scrutiny over how they handle images captured by their built-in cameras. A pendant that records conversations raises the same concerns in a more intimate form factor. The regulatory environment in the EU, where Meta faces ongoing DMA enforcement and GDPR scrutiny, could limit where the device is sold.
Meta’s hardware strategy now extends to glasses, pendants, a planned smartwatch codenamed Malibu 2, VR headsets and competitor Vision Pro. The company is betting that AI wearables will reverse Reality Labs’ accumulated losses, which have surpassed $60 billion since the division was created. The pendant is a piece of that bet. Whether he succeeds where Humane and Friend failed depends on whether Meta can make AI environmental recording useful enough for people to use and reliable enough for the people around them to tolerate it.
