Nick Records Road Crossings With Meta Glasses Camera Button

Nick, a writer at 9to5Google, uses the camera built into Meta's AI glasses to start video capture when approaching a road crossing, then stops it manually after crossing. Nick published an account of the setup on 2026-10-23 and says starting a recording takes less than a second. Recordings run in 3-minute segments. Footage stays stored on the glasses until they reconnect to a phone, at which point it syncs automatically.

Nick took up running this summer. Crossing roads, even at marked crosswalks, led them to ask what could document a possible accident for someone on foot. Holding a phone while running was out, as was carrying one in a pocket; an armband holster would not allow a phone to come out fast enough to film an incident.

Nick had already been wearing Meta glasses on runs to shoot short clips for Strava with smartwatch health stats overlaid on the video, so adding further clips along the route required little change. Nick wears a Meta Nova pair and an Oakley Meta HSTN pair on regular runs. When a car approaches, they press the camera button to start recording and press it again after crossing to stop.

Nick calls the setup about as effortless as it gets and says it works as impressive insurance if something goes wrong on a run. They add that if buying a new pair today, they would be unlikely to choose one without a camera, while acknowledging some negativity around cameras in glasses and saying there are too many good reasons to have one available.

For runners who want to try the approach, Nick suggests starting with the Oakley Meta HSTN glasses, which they describe as offering the tightest fit and the most runner-like style. Nick says there is no functional difference among Meta's latest models, making the cheaper Meta-branded pairs, without Ray-Ban or Oakley branding, a better budget choice. For anyone who wants to avoid Meta, Nick names Rokid AI Glasses as the best alternative they have used so far.

Nick does not run with a phone in hand or in a pocket. Recordings captured at crossings remain on the glasses until they reconnect to a phone, at which point they sync automatically.