Meta Introduces Monthly Usage Limit for an Accessibility Feature on its AI Glasses

Meta has quietly introduced a new usage limit for an AI-powered feature on its AI Glasses, which will now require a paid Meta One subscription to get more hours of usage per month. The affected feature is Conversation focus, which lets people hear others more easily in noisy environments.

Conversation focus was introduced in early access in the US and Canada last fall, and it uses the open-ear speakers on the Ray-Ban Meta and Oakley Meta HSTN to amplify the voice of a person a user is talking to. There are also controls for adjusting the amplification level to match the volume of the environment.

Well, Meta announced a support page that Conversation focus is now only available for free for 3 hours per month. With a Meta One Premium subscription, users can get 15 hours of usage per month, but unused hours won’t roll over to the next billing cycle.

“No subscription is required to use AI glasses,” Meta said on the support page. “All AI glasses owners get free monthly usage for certain features. If you reach your free monthly usage limit, you can upgrade to a paid Meta One Premium plan or wait until your free limit refreshes each calendar month.”

Meta One Premium, which is priced at $19.99/month in the US, is one of the new subscription plans for consumers that Meta launched in select markets last month. It includes access to the new WhatsApp Plus, Instagram Plus, and Facebook Plus benefits, expanded access to Meta AI features such as image and video generation and Thinking Mode. For owners of Meta AI glasses, the Meta One Premium Plan now offers expanded access to Conversation focus, as well as premium device support.

Meta isn’t the only company trying to monetize AI features, but in this case, this is affecting an accessibility feature that used to be free. And as The Verge pointed out today, Conversation focus is actually running locally and works without an Internet connection, which makes the new usage limits really hard to understand.