TL;DR
A leaked Meta memo confirms an AI pendant entering testing next year. The company also plans “Wearables for Work” and expanded AI glasses.
Meta is developing an AI-powered pendant that it plans to start testing within the next year, according to an internal memo viewed by The Information. The device builds on the Limitless acquisition Meta completed at the end of 2025. Limitless made 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 AI glasses lineup and launch a business subscription called Wearables for Work. The enterprise tier would position Meta’s hardware as a productivity tool rather than a consumer novelty. Reality Labs, Meta’s hardware division, lost $4 billion in Q1 2026 alone.
The AI pendant category has a troubled history. Humane’s AI Pin launched in 2024 to withering reviews and was effectively dead within a year, with HP acquiring the startup’s assets for $116 million. Friend, another AI pendant startup, spent more than $1 million on subway advertisements and struggled to find users. Neither device offered enough utility to justify wearing an additional gadget.
Meta’s approach is different in one important respect. It already has a wearables business that works. Meta sold more than seven million Ray-Ban smart glasses in 2025 and commands roughly 82% of the smart glasses market. The pendant would be a second form factor in an ecosystem that has proven consumer demand, not a standalone product betting on a category that does not yet exist.
Limitless raised more than $33 million from investors including Sam Altman and Andreessen Horowitz before Meta acquired it. CEO Dan Siroker said at the time that Meta’s vision for “personal superintelligence” through wearables aligned with what Limitless was building. The startup stopped selling devices to new customers after the acquisition but continued supporting existing users.
The Wearables for Work subscription is the most commercially interesting detail in the memo. Meta’s glasses already integrate with Meta AI for voice queries, real-time translation, and visual identification. An enterprise tier could add meeting transcription, ambient note-taking, CRM integration, and hands-free access to workplace tools. The concept mirrors Microsoft’s Copilot subscription model but delivered through hardware rather than software.
The wearables market is fragmenting into distinct categories. Apple Watch dominates the smartwatch segment but is losing momentum to screenless health trackers. Oura has filed for IPO. Whoop and Google’s Fitbit Air emphasise passive data collection. Meta’s pendant would sit in a fourth category: ambient AI capture, the always-on recording device that supplements 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 footage 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 constrain where the device is sold.
Meta’s hardware strategy is now spread across glasses, pendants, a planned smartwatch codenamed Malibu 2, VR headsets, and the Vision Pro competitor. The company is betting that AI wearables will reverse Reality Labs’ cumulative losses, which have exceeded $60 billion since the division was created. The pendant is one piece of that bet. Whether it succeeds where Humane and Friend failed depends on whether Meta can make ambient AI recording useful enough that people will wear it, and trustworthy enough that the people around them will tolerate it.
Stephan is the sports journalist for the Maple Grove Report.
