So you paid a few hundred bucks for neat little gadgets, thinking you're good to go. But now, to unlock all the advanced features of your smart glasses, you'll need to subscribe to a monthly plan. A feature called Conversation Focus boosts audio in noisy environments, but only if you’re willing to pay up.

Specifically, this means three hours per month without a subscription, with a cap at 15 hours. Subscribing also nets you faster access to human experts who can help with your smart glasses should any problems arise. Guess humans are better at some things after all.

The Conversation Focus feature runs on-device and doesn't need to head to Meta's servers for AI processing, but the company is starting to test new optional subscription plans that offer more premium features and advanced capabilities for those who want to unlock more from its apps and AI glasses. As more features are added, you're likely to see the same treatment.

Chris Harrison, director of the Future Interfaces Group at Carnegie Mellon University, doesn't think the new subscription is about helping pay for Meta's AI spending but rather about monetizing customers as adoption grows. The company's glasses are typically sold at cost, like the new $299 Meta-branded glasses that ditch fancy Ray-Ban branding for an even lower price.

As more competitors enter the market, such as Google and Apple with their own smart glasses, the race to offer value without charging users a monthly fee will be crucial. But the danger of introducing subscription tiers is that a competitor could come in and offer similar features without the charge. Meta must think these features provide meaningful value.