Through the AI lens

The coming year spells exciting news on the smart glasses front, with Google and Apple to join Meta in the market

- SREYA DEB

GOOGLE MAY BE late to the game with its soon-to-be-launched smart glasses scheduled to be released in 2026, but the XR (extended reality) platforms developed by Google for usage in smart glasses for Samsung, Android and Xreal with Warby Parker may prove to be way more nifty than its Meta counterpart that was released for the Indian market this year. Apple is also rumoured to release a new XR product — AI smart glass called the Apple Glass in 2026.

The Google XR prototype for AI smart glasses is to be released to developers by 2026, but thus far a handful of prototype glasses have been handed out to a trial group of tech writers and experts, who got to personally test the product. As per reports, many of these experts reported having a smoother and better experience with the Google product than the Meta Ray Ban version currently in the market.

The Google glasses includes two types of smart glass devices — AI glasses for screen-free assistance, equipped with speakers, microphones and cameras for natural interaction with Gemini, and display AI glasses that feature an in-lens display for private access to information such as navigation or translation captions.