Can You Use Smart Glasses for Move-In and Move-Out Inspections?

Documentation decides deposit outcomes

The numbers on this are clear. According to Zillow's Consumer Housing Trends Report (zillow.com), only 40% of recent US movers got their entire security deposit back, and 24% got nothing back. And documentation changes the outcome: renters who documented move-in condition with photos, video, and a checklist, and told their landlord, got the entire deposit back 50% of the time, versus 41% with no documentation.

Damage is the thing being argued about. According to the English Private Landlord Survey (gov.uk), 63% of landlords who withheld a deposit cited damage to the property or contents. In the UK's Tenancy Deposit Scheme adjudication data, published with the National Residential Landlords Association (nrla.org.uk), damage appeared in 49% of 2024/25 dispute claims, second only to cleaning. Deposit disputes are about condition, and a walkthrough video captures condition.

The glasses workflow at move-in and move-out

Smart glasses change one thing about inspection filming: nobody holds a camera. The inspector opens closets, tests faucets, pulls up blinds, and checks appliance interiors with both hands while the video happens from their point of view. That matters at move-outs, where the person filming is also the person testing everything.

The mechanics, from Meta's capture guide (meta.com): clips record 30 seconds by default, extendable to 3 minutes on most models and 5 on the Oakley Meta Vanguard. There is no unlimited mode, so a unit walkthrough is one clip per room, 8 to 12 clips for a bigger unit. Clips sync to the Meta AI app on a phone, export to the camera roll, and upload from there. Full specs, prices, and battery numbers for every model are in our Smart Glasses Inspection Statistics report.

Three habits make the footage useful later:

• Same route both times. Film the move-in and the move-out in the same room order, with the same sweep of each room. Matching footage makes changes easy to spot.
• One room per clip. The clip boundary marks the room, and no clip hits the 3-minute cap mid-wall.
• Get walls, floors, ceilings, and insides. Most disputed damage is small: nail holes, carpet stains, oven interiors, window tracks. Film those spots slowly.

The consent rules, because the tenant may be present

A move-out walkthrough often happens with the tenant in the unit. That changes the recording picture, because glasses capture audio too. Per a 50-state chart maintained by law firm Matthiesen, Wickert & Lehrer (mwl-law.com), 11 US states require every party's consent to record a private conversation. Three simple practices keep it clean:

• Say it out loud. Tell the tenant the walkthrough is being filmed before it starts. Most disputes get smaller when both sides know a recording exists.
• Or film alone, first. Record the unit before the joint walkthrough, then walk it together without the camera.
• Know what the light means. Meta glasses show a white capture light while recording, and according to Engadget (engadget.com), on every generation since Gen 2 the camera disables itself if the light is covered. Point the light out to the tenant so the recording is never a surprise.

Notice rules for entry and inspection vary by state, and this is not legal advice. Put your recording practice in the lease paperwork and run it past counsel once.

What to do with the footage

A folder of clips is only half the system. The move-in video is the unit's baseline. At move-out, the new video gets compared against it, room by room, and the differences become the deduction list: what changed, where, with a frame to point at. Doing that comparison by eye across two sets of clips is slow, which is where AI review earns its place. RapidEye compares move-out walkthrough video against the unit's move-in baseline and flags the changes with timestamped evidence, whatever camera recorded it. Glasses footage works the same as phone footage.

If your tenants record their own move-in videos on phones, that works with the same system; see our guide on tenant-recorded move-in and move-out inspections. Glasses are for the inspections your own staff run.

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