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Meta Removed Inactive NameTag Face-Recognition Code from AI App After WIRED Report
Wired reported that Meta included robust but inactive NameTag code in its Meta AI app as early as January. The company removed the code after the June 4 report. Executives described the feature while denying it existed.
Jul 15, 4:58 PM·1m read1 source
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Wired reported on June 4 that Meta had included robust but inactive code for its NameTag face-recognition system in the Meta AI app for Ray-Ban smart glasses. The code had been present in the app since at least January, with core components in place by May. Meta vice president of communications Andy Stone responded on X that the feature does not exist.
The company removed the NameTag code from the app the following day. On the July 8 episode of The Most Interesting Thing in AI, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth described how the system would work. He said it would identify people met in person while wearing the glasses and display their names.
Bosworth stated that NameTag would be a great feature. Meta spokesperson Ryan Daniels said it would help blind and low-vision users identify people they had already met. Meta had been building the system since early 2025, licensing face-recognition software and assembling a detection-and-matching pipeline that converts faces into numerical faceprints stored on users' devices.
A researcher used the code to recognize a photograph of Michel Foucault. In 2019 Meta abandoned a prior face-recognition feature after a $5 billion FTC settlement and a $650 million Illinois settlement. Legal cases continue over whether on-device biometric data constitutes possession under state laws such as Illinois BIPA.
