Meta Walks Back Limits For Its Smart Glasses’ Conversation Focus Feature, For Now

If you’re an owner of any of Meta’s AI glasses, you should take advantage of the Conversation Focus feature while you can. As first reported by The Verge, Meta is pausing its rate limits for the accessibility feature that uses the glasses’ speakers to amplify the voice of who you’re talking to. Meta spokesperson Tyler Yee told The Verge, “we heard the feedback so we’re pausing its subscription tests for now,” adding that “Conversation Focus will remain available for free through our Early Access Program for early testers while we work on a better approach.”

Last month, Meta discreetly added rate limits to its Conversation Focus feature for its smart glasses. The feature would be free to use until you surpassed three hours a month, after which you would have to pay for a $20-a-month Meta One Premium Plan, which still had a cap of 15 hours of use per month. It’s still unclear why Meta added rate limits to the Conversation Focus feature, since it was proven by The Verge to run on device and without an Internet connection.

While Meta made the choice to keep the Conversation Focus feature free for now, there’s no clarity on its future yet. According to Yee, Meta wants “to make sure we get it right” when talking about the feature, and that the company is “still exploring all our options for the best approach.” Even more vague, the Meta spokesperson told The Verge that “some premium features will be subscription-based over time,” attributing this to how charging for certain features helps Meta sustain its strategy of subsidizing hardware prices.