After backlash, Meta pauses plan to ‘rate limit’ its smart glasses
After backlash, Meta pauses plan to ‘rate limit’ its smart glasses
在遭到强烈反对后，Meta 暂停了对其智能眼镜进行“速率限制”的计划
Remember when Meta was planning to charge a $20 monthly subscription fee for the smart glasses feature that lets people hear each other more clearly — even though that feature runs locally on your glasses and doesn’t require the cloud? Meta has paused those plans, spokesperson Tyler Yee confirms to The Verge.
还记得 Meta 曾计划对智能眼镜的一项功能收取每月 20 美元的订阅费吗？该功能旨在让人们更清晰地听到彼此的声音，尽管它是在眼镜本地运行，并不需要云端支持。Meta 发言人 Tyler Yee 向 The Verge 证实，Meta 已经暂停了这些计划。
The company is not giving up on the idea of a subscription fee for certain features — that’s still moving forward. Yee confirms that “some premium features will be subscription-based over time.”
该公司并未放弃对某些功能收取订阅费的想法，这一策略仍在推进中。Yee 证实，“随着时间的推移，一些高级功能将采用订阅制。”
But Conversation Focus, the accessibility feature, “will remain available for free through our Early Access Program for early testers while we work on a better approach.”
但作为辅助功能，“对话聚焦”（Conversation Focus）将“在我们的早期测试计划中继续免费提供，同时我们正在研究更好的方案。”
Here’s one of the company’s statements to The Verge: Meta’s AI glasses pack a lot of value for free, and some premium features will be subscription-based over time—and conversation focus is one we want to make sure we get right. We heard the feedback so we’re pausing its subscription test for now. Conversation focus will remain available for free through our Early Access Program for early testers while we work on a better approach.
以下是该公司向 The Verge 发表的声明之一：Meta 的 AI 眼镜免费提供了许多有价值的功能，未来一些高级功能将采用订阅制，而“对话聚焦”是我们希望确保做到位的功能之一。我们听取了反馈意见，因此目前暂停了该功能的订阅测试。“对话聚焦”将在我们的早期测试计划中继续免费提供，同时我们正在研究更好的方案。
The most ridiculous part of Meta’s original plan was the “rate limits.” Meta made it sound like it needed to charge a subscription for Conversation Focus because running that service had an incremental cost, to the point that even paid subscribers would only get 15 hours of Conversation Focus per month. That was easy to disprove: When I disconnected my own Meta Ray-Bans from the internet, the feature kept on working.
Meta 最初计划中最荒谬的部分是“速率限制”。Meta 的说法听起来像是对“对话聚焦”收费是因为运行该服务有增量成本，甚至连付费订阅者每月也只能使用 15 小时的“对话聚焦”。这一点很容易反驳：当我断开自己的 Meta Ray-Ban 眼镜的网络连接时，该功能依然可以正常工作。
But Meta isn’t actually promising to abandon those “rate limits.” I asked: “Given that Conversation Focus is on-device and Meta understands the backlash, is the thinking that it will no longer be rate-limited?” Meta’s answer: “We don’t have any more details to share, but its subscription test is currently paused and we’re still exploring all our options for the best approach.”
但 Meta 实际上并没有承诺放弃这些“速率限制”。我问道：“鉴于‘对话聚焦’是在设备端运行的，且 Meta 也了解外界的强烈反对，公司是否考虑不再对其进行速率限制？”Meta 的回答是：“我们没有更多细节可以分享，但其订阅测试目前已暂停，我们仍在探索所有方案以寻求最佳处理方式。”
Yee says that “not all” premium features will be subscription-based, though. He hints the reason Meta is charging a subscription is so it can subsidize the price of hardware, not to maintain the features themselves: We sell hardware at accessible prices to get AI glasses into the hands of as many people as possible and they pack a lot of value for free, so some premium features will be subscription-based over time. Charging power users for expanded use of premium features is how we sustain this strategy and keep investing in breakthrough capabilities.
不过，Yee 表示“并非所有”高级功能都会采用订阅制。他暗示 Meta 收取订阅费的原因是为了补贴硬件价格，而不是为了维护功能本身：“我们以亲民的价格销售硬件，旨在让尽可能多的人用上 AI 眼镜，而且它们免费提供了许多有价值的功能，因此未来一些高级功能将采用订阅制。向重度用户收取扩展使用高级功能的费用，是我们维持这一战略并持续投资于突破性技术的方式。”
I don’t know if I would call my $299 Meta Ray-Bans “free.” But I do know that Meta keeps angering people who don’t like its glasses, so it’d be risky to anger those who do like them, too. I suspect the company has already decided that Conversation Focus will stay free, but is saving that announcement for later — to balance out the reveal of other features that will indeed cost money.
我不知道是否能称我那副 299 美元的 Meta Ray-Ban 眼镜为“免费”。但我知道，Meta 一直在激怒那些不喜欢其眼镜的人，因此如果连那些喜欢它的人也一并激怒，风险会很大。我怀疑该公司已经决定让“对话聚焦”保持免费，只是将这一公告留到以后发布，以平衡未来其他确实需要付费的功能所带来的负面影响。