Display access overview

Updated: Jun 2, 2026

Overview

The Meta Wearables Device Access Toolkit gives you access to the display on Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses. By using a component-based layout API inspired by popular UI frameworks in the mobile development community, you can build layouts with familiar mobile UI patterns in Swift or Kotlin. The SDK then handles rendering on the glasses automatically.

In addition to access to on-device sensors like camera, microphone, and speakers, the Meta Wearables Device Access Toolkit provides display functionality that enables you to build a variety of immersive experiences leveraging the glasses display. Users can control display integrations using captouch gestures and EMG gestures on the Meta Neural Band.

Requirements

Hardware

Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses paired with a mobile device

A mobile device with Meta AI app installed and configured.

Note: Refer to the Version Dependencies page for the latest Meta AI app and firmware versions supported.

Software

Download the Meta AI app from the App Store (iOS)⁠ or Play Store (Android)⁠ if you haven’t done so already.

The Device Access Toolkit needs to be installed on your Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses for the display functionality to work.

To install DAT:

Update Meta AI app to v272 or later.

Update your glasses firmware to v125 or later via the Meta AI app.

Put on your glasses. This is required before proceeding.

Enable Dev Mode in the Meta AI app:

Go to Settings → App Info, then tap App Version 5 times.

If Dev Mode is already enabled, Press the install button to install DAT on your glasses.

On iOS, a Wi-Fi prompt should appear after a few seconds.

App installation takes ~5–10 seconds. Please keep Meta AI app open during this time.

Sessions

Display access operates on a session-based model, where your mobile app creates a Meta Wearables Device Access Toolkit session, attaches a display capability to it, and sends UI content to the glasses over Bluetooth. Essentially, the SDK serializes your layouts, transmits them to these glasses, and routes user interactions back to your app as events.

In this model:

Users must explicitly initiate a display session.

Your app has exclusive display control during active sessions.

Sessions must be explicitly terminated by user action or app logic.

The system may interrupt sessions for calls, notifications, or other priority events.

Supported components

Component	Description
FlexBox	Flexible layout container with row/column direction, spacing, alignment, and wrapping
Text	Styled text with heading, body, and meta presets
Image	Images loaded from a URL, with size and corner radius options
Button	Tappable buttons with label, icon, and style variants
Icon	System icons. See Icons for the full list.
Video	Video playback from a URL (MP4 format)

Examples of what you can build

Informational overlays (weather, navigation, notifications)

Step-by-step guides and tutorials

Media viewers with images and short video clips

Interactive menus with buttons and tap handlers

Status dashboards with icons and styled text

Display lifecycle

The display capability follows a defined lifecycle that your app must manage. Understanding these states is essential for building a reliable integration.

States

State	Description
`stopped`	Display capability is not active. This is the initial state.
`starting`	The SDK is connecting to the glasses display service.
`started`	The display is ready. You can now send content with `send()` (iOS) or `sendContent()` (Android).
`stopping`	The display is shutting down.

stopped ──▶ starting ──▶ started ──▶ stopping ──▶ stopped

The display transitions to started once the glasses accept the display capability request. If the glasses disconnect, the display transitions through stopping back to stopped. You can restart the display by calling start() again.

Best practices

Performance

Keep layouts simple. Simple views (text, small images) transition quickly. Complex views with large images may introduce lag due to Bluetooth bandwidth constraints.

Optimize images. Use appropriately sized images for the glasses display. The display resolution is 600x600, and there is no benefit to sending larger images.

Limit video size. Keep videos under 400px per side and 70,000 total pixels. Use short clips.

User experience

Always have a root view. Designate one view as your L0 (root) view. The back gesture from L0 ends the session, so make sure users can always navigate back to it.

Handle disconnects gracefully. Bluetooth connections can drop. Observe the display state and show appropriate UI in your mobile app when the connection is lost.

Respect display sleep. The display dims and then enters sleep mode after a period of inactivity. Design your content updates around this behavior, like sending fresh content when the display wakes.

Use clear, readable text. The glasses display is small. Use the heading style for key information, and keep text concise.

Provide visual feedback. Use button style changes and icons to indicate interactive elements. Users interact through gestures, so make tappable areas obvious.

Architecture

One display per session. Only one display capability can be attached to a session at a time. Remove the existing display before adding a new one.

Send complete views. Each send() (iOS) / sendContent() (Android) call replaces the entire display. There is no partial update mechanism, so always send the full layout.

Manage state on the phone. The glasses do not retain application state. Your app is the source of truth for navigation state, data, and user preferences.