Why is Meta slowing the global expansion of Ray-Ban display glasses?

Meta is temporarily slowing the international rollout of its Ray-Ban Display smart glasses. The company says the decision is not driven by weaker interest, but by stronger-than-expected demand in the U.S. combined with limited production capacity and inventory.

According to the report, Meta had planned a broader launch outside the U.S. in early 2026 across several key markets, including the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Canada. However, the company is now prioritizing fulfillment for U.S. orders and reassessing its global release timeline.

Meta also notes that, given current demand, waitlists are stretching into 2026. That makes it harder to supply new markets in parallel: to consistently allocate stock to Europe and Canada while keeping up with U.S. orders, production needs to scale further.

Built in partnership with Ray-Ban, the model is positioned as a more ambitious step compared with earlier generations, emphasizing everyday features such as notifications, media, and AI-assistant capabilities. Reuters previously reported the device starts at $799 and highlighted a wristband-based control concept that interprets hand gestures.

At CES 2026, Meta also announced new features for the glasses. One is a “teleprompter” mode that lets users push notes from a phone to the glasses as readable cards, controlled via the wristband. The company also mentioned early access testing of an EMG-based “handwriting” feature that enables writing-like input for messaging apps.

In addition, pedestrian navigation support has expanded to 32 U.S. cities, including newly added locations such as Denver, Las Vegas, Portland, and Salt Lake City. While Meta shared these updates, it did not provide a new concrete date for wider international availability.