ZuckOff, a free Bluetooth detection app created by 30-year-old Polish developer Pawel Szydlowski, alerts users to the presence of smart glasses in their vicinity. The app was downloaded over 5,000 times on Apple’s App Store in its launch month and has reached 1,000 downloads on Google Play Store as of writing.
Szydlowski built the app by recording Bluetooth signals from various smart glasses models to create digital fingerprints for each device. He purchased the hardware himself to compile data that flags when unique identifiers match manufacturer identifiers, detecting models including Ray-Ban Meta, Oakley Meta, and Snap Spectacles.
The app addresses escalating concerns about unsolicited filming with smart glasses. Meta’s devices have drawn significant scrutiny in recent months, with schools and cinemas increasingly banning their use. A BBC investigation in January documented dozens of accounts posting content filmed with Meta glasses, including one post that shared a 21-year-old woman’s face and phone number, which accumulated over 1.3 million views.
A key vulnerability has emerged: the recording indicator light on these glasses can be easily disabled with tape, enabling covert recording. According to the source, roughly seven million pairs of Meta’s smart glasses were sold in 2025. In response, Meta announced in July that it would release an update to detect when an LED light has been “physically tampered with or destroyed” and prevent filming from those cameras. Meta Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth stated in an Instagram video that the company designed the camera to be noticed by people nearby, despite the product’s commercial proposition emphasizing that the camera doesn’t resemble a traditional camera.
ZuckOff has limitations: it cannot determine whether nearby glasses are actively recording or identify the wearer. Instead, it reads signal strength to provide rough proximity information, making an invisible problem partially visible. The app’s basic scanning feature is free on iPhone, with a paid ZuckOff Pro version offering continuous background monitoring, widgets, alerts, sighting history, and CSV export.
Meta faces legal constraints in taking action against the app, as ZuckOff does not intercept signals—it simply reads legally broadcast Bluetooth data. The hardware itself is relatively simple and inexpensive to replicate, making enforcement difficult.
Key facts
- ZuckOff detects Meta, Ray-Ban, Oakley, and Snap smart glasses by identifying their Bluetooth signals
- The app was downloaded over 5,000 times on Apple’s App Store in its launch month
- Smart glasses recording lights can be disabled with tape, allowing covert filming
- Meta announced an update in July to detect physically tampered LED lights
- Roughly seven million pairs of Meta’s smart glasses were sold in 2025
- A BBC investigation found Meta glasses used to post content with personal information that reached 1.3 million views