Meta is learning a lesson about camera glasses that Google learned more than 10 years ago

• Wearing a camera is controversial.
• Google figured this out the hard way with its infamous Google Glass. Over 10 years later, Meta is learning the same lesson.
• Meta is now reportedly working on camera-free AI glasses. It's a good idea, but it's hard to put the genie back in the bottle.

Meta is cooking up camera-free glasses, according to a new report. And why shouldn't they? After all, wearing a camera on your face has always been a tough sell — just ask Google.

Remember when Sergey Brin jumped out of a plane wearing Google Glass, recording grainy video of his sky dive? That was way back in 2012, and the bizarre-looking camera glasses flopped soon after.

The public did not take kindly to the idea of being filmed (even though, yes, smartphones with cameras had long existed). A former colleague of mine was even assaulted in a San Francisco bar while wearing them.

Meta has been re-testing the waters with its AI smart glasses. Meta's have proved far more popular than Google Glass thanks to AI, their more traditional look, and list of genuinely useful features.

(Meta's ad that aired during the US Open — where a woman records the back-and-forth of a tennis rally by moving her head, while the crowd around her films on their phones — was particularly effective at pointing out how they can help you stay in the moment.)

But Meta is still hitting the same wall of uneasiness that Google experienced more than a decade ago.

Now, there are signs that Meta is cooking up a simpler, but likely less controversial product. The Information reported this week that Meta is working on a camera-free variant of its AI glasses, though there's no sign that the company is throwing in the towel on camera glasses. The idea is that customers would just have more choices. (Meta declined to comment on the report when contacted by Business Insider.)

I think it's a good idea, and one I'm sure Meta considered years ago, back when they were first mapping out what their smart glasses would look like, and which tech to include. Mark Zuckerberg was no stranger to the Google Glass debacle.

But Meta decided to roll the dice with cameras when its glasses first went to market, and in many ways that's paid off. Sales have boomed in recent years, but so has the backlash, both of which Business Insider has reported on extensively.

With AI glasses, sometimes less is more

A camera-free design means trade-offs. It means no visual identification of what you're looking at (sorry, tourists), and a lot of compelling features go out the door. Say goodbye to recording that tennis bout without your phone.

But in return, there's the opportunity to side-step a lot of IRL controversy, too.

It's easy to suggest Meta should have done this out of the gate, but it's important to remember that Amazon did exactly that with its Echo Frame smart glasses, which plugged into Alexa, before the first pair of Meta Ray-Bans ever launched.

Alexa was pretty bad back then (it's gotten better after Amazon's big AI overhaul), and you probably have never heard of Echo Frames. Meta is the clear market leader in the smart glasses category. In many ways, that early bet paid off.

Introducing a camera-free version still offers compelling use cases. People love listening to music on smart glasses, since it's less isolating than putting in earbuds. You can still ask AI questions without taking out your phone. No cameras also undoubtedly means a sleeker design.

But I'd argue they'll still inherit the baggage of Meta's camera glasses. That's a much harder reputational genie to put back into the bottle. Meta is certainly trying, rolling out a PR campaign and doing some legitimately creative things to fight back against bad actors using its glasses to be creepy (though Business Insider has reported that its crackdown on harassing videos recorded surreptitiously on its glasses is off to a bumpy start). Shaking the "pervert glasses" rep isn't going to be easy.

Meta would be hedging its bets by introducing a camera-free model, five years after launching its first smart glasses. That's not altogether surprising, as the company offers various configurations of wearables with different levels of tech crammed inside (you can buy the pricier Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses, which are bulkier but include an integrated screen). Selling a camera-free model could prove a savvy move to tap into a new customer base that isn't willing to risk a stranger grilling them about whether they're recording.

Social norms change. People balked at bringing Jeff Bezos into their bedroom with an always-listening Alexa. Amazon has since sold over half a billion Alexa-enabled devices. Even the famously privacy-focused Apple is now dipping its toe into always-listening territory with its controversial new Apple Watch features.

Will people en masse ever be comfortable with camera glasses? It's entirely possible. Google was met with a resounding "no" 12 years ago. Meta has pushed the needle to "maybe" — but it makes sense to cater to the "no" crowd, too.