Samsung Electronics Co. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google unveiled the designs of smart glasses co-developed with eyewear partners Warby Parker and Gentle Monster, set for release in the fall.
The products, entering a category that’s so far been led by Meta Platforms Inc., are the first in a series of artificial intelligence-powered glasses that will let consumers interact with Google Gemini through voice commands — similar to the way Meta AI runs on Ray-Ban smart glasses. Models with built-in displays are in the works and set for release in 2027, but the Warby Parker and Gentle Monster hardware will predominantly be based on audio, with integrated cameras for Gemini.
With the glasses, users will be able to ask for directions, play music, take voice calls, listen to notification summaries, add calendar appointments and request Gemini’s help for real-time translation, among other features. Data from the camera makes it possible to ask for details about any given object that a user is looking at. The glasses can also capture photos and video with a button press or through voice commands, with an LED lighting up to alert people nearby that the camera is active.
“We have to raise the bar and design for privacy from the ground up,” Shahram Izadi, vice president and general manager of Android XR at Google, said in an interview ahead of the design reveal.
Google and Samsung plan to share more specifics around privacy safeguards over the coming months. Pricing and a specific release date for the glasses, which are a collaborative effort between the tech giants and eyewear makers, haven’t yet been revealed.
Google is also working with smart glasses pioneer Xreal Inc. on a set of standalone augmented reality glasses, codenamed Project Aura, that can run its Android XR software platform without requiring a connected smartphone to power everything. That device is on track for release this year.
An updated Project Aura prototype being demonstrated this week at Google’s I/O developer conference has added biometric fingerprint authentication to the tethered battery module.
Samsung released the first Android XR device with last year’s Galaxy XR virtual reality headset. “We’re continuing to make the XR platform for headsets and continuing to drive,” said Jay Kim, an executive vice president at Samsung’s mobile business. “We’re continuing to look into that area, but we’re also diversifying the device ecosystem.”
The company views fully-enclosed headsets as a more stationary experience that’s better suited to watching movies or productivity across multiple virtual displays. “Glasses are a completely different use case where it’s on the go,” he said. “I think this is one very important step towards a native AI device.”
“I think you’ll see, with AI glasses, many different categories forming, whether it’s audio only, audio plus camera, single display, or dual display — each having its own tradeoffs,” Izadi added.
Meta has enjoyed a long head start in the smart glasses category and now sells a wide mix of styles with partner EssilorLuxottica SA. Prices start at under $300 for audio-only glasses and range up to $799 for the first pair to include a built-in display for augmented visuals, which debuted last year. The companies sold more than 7 million Ray-Ban and Oakley AI frames in 2025.
Apple Inc., the dominant player in consumer electronics, will bring its first smart glasses to market in 2027, Bloomberg News has previously reported, taking the same audio-based approach as Google, Samsung and earlier Meta Ray-Bans.
Welch writes for Bloomberg.