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Smart Glasses Development Pillars
Core components driving the new Android XR smart glasses.
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Hands-On With All of Google's New Upcoming Android XR Smart Glasses
May 19, 2026 1:45 PMHere’s your first look at smart glasses coming from Warby Parker and Gentle Monster, powered by Google and Samsung’s XR platform.Photograph: Julian Chokkattu/WIREDGoogle has been teasing its Android XR-powered smart glasses for the past year and a half—ever since it first announced the new mixed reality platform in December of 2024. Now, we're finally starting to see more polished versions of the hardware, several of which will actually go on sale this fall.At Google I/O, the company gave us a first look at the designs of smart glasses coming from established eyewear brands Warby Parker and Gentle Monster. These smart glasses are codeveloped by Samsung and Google, while the eyeglass companies handle the design of the frames.Xreal also took the stage at I/O to showcase its upcoming Project Aura, which is essentially a miniaturized glasses version of bulky headsets like the Apple Vision Pro and Samsung's Galaxy XR—powering a full Android app interface with hand gestures for interaction.Audio-only smart glasses from Warby Parker and Gentle Monster will launch later this year. More complex versions with displays built into the lenses will arrive soon after. Xreal's Project Aura will also come this fall.I got a chance to wear some early versions of these frames and try out a few features in a controlled demo experience.Smarter GlassesPhotograph: Julian Chokkattu/WIREDI wasn't able to see the final polished designs from Warby Parker and Gentle Monster. Instead, my demos were on unfinished reference glasses from Samsung and Google. The most remarkable thing about them is how light they are. Google says much of the work it and Samsung have done was to miniaturize the technology to save weight. The arms of the glasses are still a little chunky, though.Audio quality was equally impressive. As soon as I asked Gemini to play some Radiohead, the audio surrounded my head and sounded dynamic, though I was in a quiet room. I asked someone else to try them so I could see if I could hear it at 50 percent volume while sitting across from them. I could barely hear the music.The audio-only glasses will be the first to arrive later this year. And yes, all of these upcoming smart glasses—even the audio-only ones—have cameras. That's how the Gemini assistant can see what you're seeing to provide helpful, contextual answers and services. The versions with more advanced optics will provide a richer experience. For example, if someone talks to you in a different ...
Google's Android XR smart glasses hope to succeed where AI-first ...
Samsung We may earn revenue from the products available on this page and participate in affiliate programs. Learn more › Sign Up For Goods 🛍️ Product news, reviews, and must-have deals. Google put AI on people’s faces more than a decade ago with its Google Glass wearable. It was designed to put a computer directly on your face, but the world (and to some extent, the hardware) wasn’t quite ready for that yet. At Google I/O 2026 on Tuesday, Google announced new intelligent eyewear built with Samsung and Qualcomm, in frames from Warby Parker and Gentle Monster, shipping this fall. It’s a far cry from the original Google Glass project, and in many ways, it simplifies and streamlines the overall interaction. The pitch is that the glasses skip the standalone hardware category entirely. They put a Gemini agent in eyewear people would already wear, and let it do multi-step work on the phone in your pocket. The keynote demo was a single voice command walking past a cafe. The agent queued a Doordash coffee order on the phone, the user kept walking, and the only step left was a confirmation tap. The hardware enters through a mine field of agentic AI projects that, so far, haven’t achieved their lofty ambitions to replace our phones. Humane’s ill-fated AI Pin sold to HP in February 2025, and its agent servers went dark within weeks of the deal closing. The Rabbit R1 shipped to reviewers who called it half-finished. The lone survivor at any scale is Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses, which work in part because they don’t try to be an agent. They are an audio assistant with a camera. Where Gemini Intelligence comes in This pair could pass for typical glasses. Samsung Meta’s Ray-Bans can take a photo, summarize a notification, identify the building you’re walking past, and route a call to your phone. They cannot order you a coffee (at least not yet). The new Google and Samsung glasses can, and that agentic functionality is what the company hopes will make this hardware an integral part of people’s lives. Google calls this layer Gemini Intelligence, and it handles multi-step tasks in the background while the glasses act as the voice and camera frontend. The Doordash demo is the most concrete example Google offered, and the company says the same pattern extends to any other phone app you can drive by voice. Ride-hailing through Uber and language tutoring through Mondly also got namechecked. You wake Gemini either by saying “Hey Google” or tapping the side of the fram...
Samsung And Google Unveil First Android XR Glasses With AI Translation ...
The audio glasses also work as a hands-free interface for a connected phone or smartwatch. In Google's on-stage demo, the user asked about missed texts, added a calendar event, and prepared a DoorDash order by voice, with Gemini speaking responses through the glasses while the phone or watch showed the related information.
I wore Google's Android XR glasses again - ZDNET
My latest demos of the Android XR reference glasses and Project Aura show even more promise for Google's wearable lineup.
