I’ve been on a call with my insurance provider for over an hour when the fire alarm in my apartment starts blaring. The sound is extraordinarily loud, piercing through the entire building. It overwhelms the voice on the other line, which comes through the six-mic system of my new Meta Nova smart glasses.

The glasses do quite a good job of culling background noise over calls. I manage to dart outside, keep the call going, and eventually learn this is a false alarm. I breathe a sigh of relief, but the helpful human on the other end sounds very worried and asks if I’m OK. Turns out, they hadn’t heard the sirens at all, just me screeching, “OH JESUS WHAT IS HAPPENING?”

This may not be a use case that would inspire someone to buy a new pair of Meta’s smart glasses. Especially not its camera-equipped ones, which have become prime targets of controversy about them being used by creeps and abusers. (Meta launched camera-free audio-only glasses, but we haven't tested them yet.)