After Google’s AI-Baked Smart Glasses Tease, Apple Plans Its Own Version

Google I/O 2025 was a pretty exciting show, revealing a bunch of cool stuff coming down the pipeline. Shahram Izadi, Google’s Android XR lead, and Product Manager Nishtha Bhatia demoed a prototype of the upcoming smart glasses. Now, a new report says Apple wants in on the action too, planning to launch its own smart glasses next year.

Apple is now working on its own smart glasses, to take on Meta

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that Apple is planning to launch smart glasses by the end of 2026. Apple has generally been cautious about releasing more XR products after the Vision Pro didn’t quite meet expectations. It wasn’t a bad product by any means, but it didn’t find a strong market fit. Now, Apple is ready to try again, reportedly with a standalone smart glasses device.

Naturally, you can expect some AI smarts built in. According to Gurman, Apple’s smart glasses will feature a camera, microphone, and speakers, along with access to Siri. For now, Apple is aiming to compete with Meta, which has already made waves in the this space. Honestly, Apple really needs to get Apple Intelligence sorted before rolling out another hardware.

These glasses will allow users to take photos, record videos, translate languages, get directions, play music, make calls, and respond to questions. They will also provide information about what the user sees, all powered by Siri. However, they won’t offer full augmented reality capabilities. Apple is focusing on making Siri smarter before the glasses officially hit the market.

Apple expects to produce several prototypes by the end of this year to test before moving into full production. It remains to be seen how well these smart glasses will perform. And whether they’ll catch on with consumers. One notable disappointment is the report’s mention that these glasses won’t include full augmented reality features, which might be a letdown for some. Perhaps this means Apple’s lightweight AR glasses are still a few years away.