Your Meta glasses just got better at telling you where to go without pulling out your phone

Pulling out your phone to check which way to turn somewhat defeats the point of wearing smart glasses. Meta tackled that problem last month with one of the more useful upgrades yet for its Ray-Ban smart glasses: turn-by-turn walking navigation. That feature arrived with the v128 update alongside several other improvements, and just as that release becomes more widely available, Meta is already following it up with v129 and a couple of new audio accessibility controls.

The standout addition in v128 is pedestrian navigation, which lets you ask Meta AI for walking directions and hear turn-by-turn guidance through your glasses. For example, you can say, “Hey Meta, navigate to Times Square,” and the glasses will use location information from your connected phone to guide you there. For destinations too far to walk, Meta instead sends driving directions to your phone.

Even better, you can find a destination in a mapping app on your phone, tap the share button, and send it to the Meta AI app. Navigation then starts on your connected glasses. With v128 now broadly available, more owners can leave their phones in their pockets or bags while walking in unfamiliar areas.

Version 128 also introduced Spatial Audio support, new location features, and additional anti-tampering measures designed to stop the camera from working if someone interferes with the glasses’ privacy LED.

Meta is now following up with a new v129 update focused on audio accessibility. According to release notes shared by 9to5Google, the update adds Mono Audio, which combines the left and right channels so the same sound plays on both sides, and Audio Balance, which lets users shift sound toward either ear one step at a time. Both settings live under Device settings > Audio > Accessibility.

The latest update appears to be rolling out gradually across generations and regions. A Reddit user in the UK says their first-generation Ray-Ban Meta Wayfarers have already received firmware 129.0.0.197.378, but the app shows no release notes after updating. They also reported that features including English UK, additional English voices, and Conversation Focus were still unavailable, while the Glasses Translate option had disappeared entirely after the update.

There’s also confirmation that v129 isn’t limited to first-generation hardware. A Gen 2 Wayfarer owner in Peru received the same 129.0.0.197.378 build. Another user in Texas has also reported receiving v129, but many others are still waiting for the update.

For now, v129 looks more like a useful refinement to the much more substantial v128 release, with turn-by-turn navigation arguably doing the most to make Meta’s glasses more useful away from your phone.