Ray-Ban Stories users will soon be able to speak to their smart glasses to send a WhatsApp message without having to bring out their smartphone. A new APK teardown of the WhatsApp for Android app suggests that this feature may become a reality in the coming days. However, the feature will be locked to Ray-Ban Stories smart glasses, as it seems to be a feature exclusive to Facebook Assistant.
According to an XDA Developers report, strings of data that suggests this feature were spotted in the latest WhatsApp beta 2.22.9.13. The data spotted by some users hints at the feature being developed to dictate messages through Facebook Assistant on the specific wearable line. The data just mentions an Assistant, however, the report claims that it is likely talking about the Facebook Assistant and not the one developed by Google.
The report mentions that this upcoming feature will allow Ray-Ban Stories users to dictate messages into the microphone on the smart glasses. Users will be able to message a friend on WhatsApp while they are walking down the street without even touching their phones as they can instruct Facebook Assistant to do the same. The report also mentions graphics that include the smart glasses and the WhatsApp logo apart from the strings of code discovered in the teardown.
This feature will have a very specific use case and might help Ray-Ban Stories to change the wearables market. Meta will be using Facebook Assistant over any other third-party services as it wants to keep some of its WhatsApp features in-house. However, APK teardowns are no official confirmation as all features spotted on beta versions don’t make it to the final release.
