How to delete Ray-Ban Meta voice recordings stored for up to a year

Key takeaways

• Ray-Ban Meta and other Meta AI glasses save your voice interactions to your account, and Meta's voice privacy notice says stored audio and transcripts can be kept for up to one year.
• You can review and delete them in the Meta AI app under your glasses' Glasses privacy settings, in the Voice activity log, one by one or all at once.
• Whether you can stop storage completely depends on your region: some versions of Meta's notice offer a storage switch, while US owners lost that opt-out in April 2025, according to TechCrunch and VR.org.
• To cut accidental recordings, turn off Respond without "Hey Meta" (on by default) or turn off the "Hey Meta" wake word and use the touchpad instead.
• October 2026 reports of glasses saving speech without the wake phrase are a reason to check your log now. Meta says that issue "has been resolved," according to TechSpot.

To delete Ray-Ban Meta voice recordings, open the Meta AI app, go to your glasses' privacy settings and clear the Voice activity log, individually or all at once. Meta's notice, effective 22 July 2025, says stored audio can stay for up to a year.

The steps below follow Meta's help center and its AI glasses voice controls privacy notice. Menu names can change between app versions and regions, so if a label on your phone differs slightly, look for the closest match in the same place.

How to delete Meta AI glasses voice recordings

Meta's privacy notice says stored voice interactions can be viewed or deleted in the Meta AI app, in a section it calls the Voice Activity Log. Deleting a recording and its transcript also deletes the data linked to that interaction. Here is how to get there.

Step 1: Open your glasses' privacy settings

1. Open the Meta AI app (the companion app formerly called Meta View) on the phone paired with your glasses.
2. Tap the Glasses icon in the top right corner.
3. Tap Device settings. If you have more than one device paired, swipe to choose the right pair first.
4. Under Glasses, tap your glasses.
5. Scroll down and tap Glasses privacy.

This path comes from Meta's help page on controlling what you share from AI glasses.

Step 2: Review the voice activity log

Inside Glasses privacy, open Voice activity log. Each entry is one interaction, usually a transcript of what was heard, and an audio clip if recordings are stored. Look closely at entries you do not remember making. If you see snippets of ordinary conversation with no request to Meta AI in them, the glasses may have woken by mistake.

Step 3: Delete single entries or everything

Delete individual entries you do not want kept. To wipe the whole history, use the Delete all button at the top of the log, a step described by Android Headlines in its April 2025 walkthrough. That guide also said there was no auto-delete option for these recordings, so plan to repeat the check from time to time instead of assuming the log clears itself.

Step 4: Download a copy first, if you want one

If you want a record before deleting, Meta's notice says you can download transcripts and related data with the Download Your Information tools in the Meta AI app. Once an entry is deleted it is gone from the log, so take the copy first.

How long Meta keeps voice recordings

Meta's notice sets two retention clocks. If its systems detect that an interaction was unintended, it is labelled a "false wake" (misactivation) and deleted within 90 days of detection. Other stored voice transcripts and audio are kept for up to one year, unless you delete them sooner.

Stored data is not just archived. According to the notice, when storage for product improvement is on, Meta uses machine learning and trained reviewers, described as vetted vendors and select employees, to process interactions in order to improve, troubleshoot and train its products. Meta says the pitch of voices is altered when reviewers listen.

Can you turn voice storage off?

This depends on where you are. The version of Meta's notice reviewed for this guide describes two separate storage settings, one for audio recordings and one for transcripts and related data. You cannot store recordings if transcript storage is off. With storage off, Meta says recordings and transcripts are deleted right after processing, are not used to improve products and are not reviewed by trained reviewers. Voice commands still work either way. Anything stored before you switched it off stays for up to a year unless you delete it.

US owners have a narrower choice. TechCrunch reported on 30 April 2025 that Meta had emailed owners to say it would store voice recordings to improve its products, with no option to opt out. VR.org, which compared regional versions of the notice in October 2026, reported that the US, Canadian and Australian pages offer no switch to stop recording storage on Ray-Ban Meta and Oakley Meta glasses, while the UK, Irish and German pages let owners choose. If you see no storage toggle under Glasses privacy, deleting entries by hand is the control you have.

How to reduce accidental activations

Deleting recordings cleans up after the fact. Changing how the glasses listen reduces what gets captured in the first place. Both settings below sit in the same menu, which Meta documents in its help page on responding without "Hey Meta":

1. In the Meta AI app, tap the Glasses icon, then Device settings.
2. Under Glasses, tap your glasses, then tap Meta AI.
3. Tap "Hey Meta" preferences.

Turn off Respond without "Hey Meta"

Meta says this feature is on by default. After each request, it keeps the microphone open for a short time so you can ask a follow-up without repeating the wake word. It switches off if you do not speak again, and saying "Stop" or "Cancel" ends the conversation early. Turning the toggle off means every request has to start with "Hey Meta", which shortens the time the microphone is listening.

Turn off the "Hey Meta" wake word

The same screen holds the "Hey Meta" toggle and a Wake sound toggle, according to Meta's microphone troubleshooting page. Turning the wake word off stops the glasses from listening for it. Meta's notice says voice can also be started by pressing and holding the touchpad if that option is set in the app, so you can still use the assistant deliberately. Leaving Wake sound on while the wake word is enabled gives you an audible cue whenever the assistant starts listening.

Watch the indicator light and keep firmware current

Malwarebytes advises keeping both the glasses and the app updated, since updates can include privacy and security fixes, and checking your voice history for interactions you do not recognise. It also warns against treating the Respond without "Hey Meta" toggle as a guarantee, because the owner behind the October reports said it was already off.

Settings compared: what each one does and costs you

Table based on Meta's AI glasses voice controls privacy notice (effective 22 July 2025) and Meta help center pages; regional availability per VR.org (October 2026).

Why this matters now: the October recording reports

In mid-October 2026, a Ray-Ban Meta owner posted on Reddit that their glasses had saved conversations with other people even though nobody said "Hey Meta". According to TechSpot, the owner said recordings and transcripts showed up in the Meta AI app, the Respond without "Hey Meta" setting was off, the white indicator light sometimes came on during normal speech, and the behaviour appeared on three pairs, including second- and third-generation models, after a firmware update. Other users in the thread described similar problems.

Meta said in a statement that "This issue has been resolved," TechSpot reported, adding that people can manage, review and delete voice logs of their Meta AI interactions in settings at any time. Malwarebytes noted that Meta has not explained the cause, how many owners were affected, or what happened to the captured audio. Before that statement, Meta support had suggested steps such as disabling microphone and camera permissions, turning off Wear Detection, deleting voice history and pausing automatic updates, according to the owner's account as reported by TechSpot. Those steps would switch off core features, so most owners will prefer the targeted settings above.

There is no public evidence of how widespread the problem was, and Meta says it is fixed. The practical lesson is simpler: the voice activity log is the place where any unintended capture would show up, so it is worth checking.

What it means

Smart glasses put a microphone and camera at eye level in everyday conversations, which makes their privacy settings matter to the people around you as well as to the wearer. Meta's defaults favour convenience and product improvement: storage on, follow-up listening on, and in some regions no way to stop storage at all. A five-minute routine changes that balance. Review and clear the voice activity log, switch off Respond without "Hey Meta" if you do not need it, and consider using the touchpad instead of the wake word in private settings. Malwarebytes also suggests asking before recording people nearby.

If you are tightening privacy across your accounts, our guide on how to check if your data was breached covers the next step. For more coverage of the company, see our Meta topic page and other privacy stories.