When Google ships its newly refreshed smart glasses this year—as the rumor mill is predicting, and as the hands-on demos posted just last week have all but confirmed it will—the company’s tech will be joining a crowded field. But whether this rebirth of Glass will pop or fizzle comes down to whether Google can best its main competitor: Meta.
Meta is the undisputed champion of the smart glasses battlefield now, with its snazzy and fashionable frames born of brand partnerships with Ray-Ban and Oakley. The company has also reaffirmed its focus on face computing by recently laying off workers to reallocate resources from its Metaverse efforts to focus on its XR and AI-enabled gadgets. Earlier this month, Bloomberg reported that Meta is looking to double its smart glasses production and wants to have the capacity to sell 20 to 30 million units by the end of 2026.
Smart glasses are a big business, and Google almost certainly has the muscle to break in. The company is taking a two-pronged approach by positioning its Android XR ecosystem as a way to get familiar mobile apps running on its glasses platform right away, and by partnering with eyewear manufacturers to make wearables that people will actually be excited to wear. If you remember the original Google Glass—and most people do, it was that bad—then you know how critical it is that Google gets this right.
“Even though Google was first, they’re still kind of playing catch-up right now,” says IDC tech analyst Jitesh Urbani.
Google has been enlisting some outside help, working with partners like Samsung and XReal to build glasses that will likely have displays and powerful computing components on board. It has also partnered with glasses manufacturers Warby Parker and Gentle Monster with the goal of making models that are truly fashion-forward. Samsung is likely to release a bigger, beefier set of smart glasses this year, and those, like others coming soon, will also run Android XR and slot cleanly into Google’s computing ecosystem.
The not-so-secret weapon in Google’s arsenal here is Gemini, the company’s AI model that powers its chatbot and an increasingly long list of its other software. Google has always relied on its software strengths, and Gemini, it turns out, is very good—so much so that it has made companies like OpenAI and Meta nervous and forced them to accelerate development on their own models. Apple has even partnered with Google to use Gemini to power features in its new version of Siri. And since Apple has some smart glasses ambitions of its own, it is likely Gemini could be used for AI features within them. That would give Google an unprecedented level of reach.
“They get to monetize Gemini outside of Android and they get the benefit of basically the entire iOS ecosystem optimizing for Gemini as well,” says Anshel Sag, a tech analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy. “It’s the closest I think we’ve come to an AI winner.”
Meta, the big fish in the smart glasses pond, has positioned the AI capabilities of its smart glasses as the platform’s most useful feature. But Meta AI’s conversational prowess doesn’t exactly match what Google has accomplished with Gemini. Features like Meta’s AI language translation or image recognition don’t always work so well in the real world.
“Every time I use Meta AI, I wish it were Gemini,” Sag says. (He’s talking to me through a pair of Meta Oakley Vanguards.) “I think we haven’t fully realized the capability of AI in smart glasses until we get it in Gemini on a pair of Google glasses.”
Meta also does have some trust issues, stemming from its user privacy practices and its occasional data leaks.
“Meta is not the most trusted technology brand, shall we say, by some distance, when it comes to data privacy and security,” says Ben Hatton, a tech analyst at CCS Insights. “That may be holding the market back. If Meta is the only player, and Google can come in and say, this is all on device, this is all secure, this is all just kept within your device, then more heads may be turned.”
The place where Meta has the most leverage is in the style game. Its partnership with EssilorLuxottica—the parent company of Ray-Ban and Oakley—has helped it make smart glasses that generally look like something people would be happy to wear in public. The notable exception is the design of the chunky new Meta Display glasses, which still earn some style points even though they are bulky, a bit ill-fitting, and definitely “computer glasses.”
Google’s new glasses will almost certainly also look heavy and weird. A little over a year ago, Google showed off its Android XR platform on some thick-framed chonks, and the Google glasses that have been appearing in recent news articles and in new demo videos shot this month look about the same. (Google has promised us our own demo very soon.)
Google’s partnership with Warby Parker and Gentle Monster could also yield frames with a more appealing aesthetic, but those glasses will likely have fewer features than the more powerful models from Samsung and other Android XR partners.
“I don’t think Meta’s in trouble at all right now,” Urbani says. “Google is great as a tech company, but there’s a lot they have to learn in terms of fashion and selling glasses.”
Google’s broader goal with its smart glasses effort is the expansion of Android XR as a platform. Even if Google can’t nail the fashion element, its software could attract a third party who can.
“Nobody actually wants to ship a pair of glasses and build an entire operating system and foundational AI model to run on it,” Sag says. “I think people want to build glasses with an operating system that already exists and with an application ecosystem that’s already built.”
So when will you get to wear Google’s new glasses and start pinging Gemini, taking video calls hands-free, and hailing Ubers from your face?
“I certainly expect them to be out by the middle of the year,” Hatton says. And maybe even before then. “If they’re going to bring out sunglasses as a form factor, you probably want them out for spring so people can start thinking about buying them for the summer.”