Meta plans to add its new Muse AI agent to the Ray-Ban smart glasses it is giving free to legally blind veterans nationwide, the company said this week. About 130,000 legally blind veterans across the country will receive the AI-equipped glasses for free, a program announced by Meta in June 2026.

The glasses let veterans read documents, identify objects and navigate unfamiliar spaces without a screen or a sighted companion. Meta said at Connect, its new product showcase, that Muse is coming to its AI glasses, including the Ray-Ban Meta models given to veterans, in the coming months.

Demand for the veterans program has outpaced supply, and new requests are being placed on a waitlist.

The Blinded Veterans Association (BVA) created the training that comes with each pair of glasses. The nonprofit is distributing them along with partners including the American Council of the Blind, Homes for Our Troops, Lighthouse Guild and National Industries for the Blind, according to BVA and Meta.

Don Overton, a veteran of the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division who lost his eyesight in a bunker explosion during Desert Storm, later served as BVA's national executive director and worked with Meta's wearables team to help build features for the glasses.

"When I lost my eyesight in Desert Storm from a bunker explosion, I also lost my independence," Overton said in Meta's June announcement. "The moment I put on my Ray-Ban Meta glasses, I got my independence back."

In Cincinnati, 84-year-old Navy veteran Charly Sapp, who served as a Navy engineer, received a pair through the BVA program at the Cincinnati Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired, according to WLWT. Sapp, who told WLWT he lost his sight about eight to 10 years ago from what he said was a childhood disease, said the glasses' ability to read printed text felt "kind of amazing."

The glasses use Meta's AI to describe a user's surroundings aloud, read text and make phone calls hands-free. They can also translate speech in real time and connect wearers with sighted volunteers through a partnership with Be My Eyes, announced in September 2024 and expanded since.

The veterans program is part of a broader accessibility push by Meta. The company awarded nearly $2 million in AI Glasses Impact Grants to 30 organizations across the U.S. that use the glasses to serve people with disabilities.

Recipients include OurLife Labs in California, which is building an assistant for people with early-stage dementia and mild cognitive impairments that it plans to integrate with Ray-Ban Meta glasses later this year. Another recipient, the United Spinal Association, based in New York, plans to outfit wheelchair users with the glasses to document accessibility barriers in parks and other public spaces and share the findings with officials.

At Meta Connect on Sept. 23, the company announced a hearing-enhancement feature for its AI glasses. Meta says the software is cleared by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for adults 18 and older who perceive mild to moderate hearing loss and can be set up at home without a prescription or clinic visit.

Meta says the feature will cost $149.99 as a one-time add-on, or come included with a Meta One subscription, and will be eligible for health savings account (HSA) and flexible spending account (FSA) funds. The company says it plans to launch the feature in the U.S. later this year on supported AI glasses; Engadget reported Ray-Ban models are not among them.

Meta launched Muse, a personal AI agent app, on Sept. 8. The app was downloaded more than 902,000 times in its first six days, according to estimates from the analytics firm Sensor Tower cited by Bloomberg. Meta said at Connect that Muse is coming to its AI glasses in the coming months.

In a statement released with Meta's June announcement, BVA National Executive Director Lea Rowe said the partnership brings the group's mission of "blinded veterans helping blinded veterans" to life "at an unprecedented scale." Veterans can join the waitlist at bva.org/glasses.