More than a decade ago, pricey smart glasses that allowed people to snap photos, text and browse the web generated a lot of buzz but also resistance.
People who wore Google Glass in 2014 faced backlash over fears that the smart glasses, priced at $1,500, would secretly record people or make human interactions socially awkward. Two years later, the company behind the disappearing messaging app Snapchat tried selling sunglasses equipped with a camera in vending machines, but the wearable gadget also flopped.
Today, major tech companies — including Facebook’s parent company Meta, Google and Snap — are racing once again to entice more people to wear a computer on their face, competing to build what they view as the next big computing platform.
Apple, the maker of the iPhone, and e-commerce giant Amazon are reportedly working on high-tech glasses too. And ChatGPT maker OpenAI this year teamed up with Jony Ive, a former Apple executive known for designing the iPhone, to build new AI devices that will “completely reimagine what it means to use a computer.”
The race to develop wearable technology that could become as ubiquitous as smartphones is intensifying as AI assistants become increasingly integrated into people’s daily lives. The use of smart glasses, however, is still niche and may take several years to become more mainstream, analysts say.
“We’re heading in the right direction. It seems like 2025, 2026, even 2027 will be the years of inflection in the growth trajectory for smart glasses,” said Jitesh Ubrani, a research manager at the International Data Corporation who covers wearables.
Consumer adoption of smart glasses is growing. In the U.S., roughly 17% of online adults indicate they’ve used smart glasses, up from 4% in 2024, a survey Forrester released this year shows.
“While Meta has a head start on AI glasses, competition is champing at the bit,” wrote Mike Proulx, a vice president and research director at Forrester in a blog post about Meta’s AI-powered glasses. Samsung, HTC and Apple are expected to release smart glasses next year.
Snap, the Santa Monica-based tech company behind Snapchat, is also positioning itself as a contender.
Snap plans to sell more powerful augmented reality glasses in 2026. The company announced this week that it updated the operating system that powers its AR glasses.
Augmented reality technology overlays computer-generated images over the physical world and is used in games like Pokémon Go. It is also used for face filters on apps like Snapchat where people wear digital dog ears or change their hair color.
Meta, which already sells Ray-Ban smart glasses and virtual reality headsets, showcased its latest smart glasses in Menlo Park, Calif., on Wednesday night.
The lineup: a more advanced pair of Ray-Ban Meta glasses starting at $379 with a longer battery life, AI assistant and the ability to capture more vivid videos; Oakley Meta Vanguard glasses starting at $499 designed for workouts; and Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses with a high-tech wristband starting at $799 that makes it possible for people to send text messages and complete other tasks using subtle hand gestures.
“Glasses are the only form factor where you can let an AI see what you see, hear what you hear, talk to you throughout the day,” said Meta’s Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday night at Meta’s developer conference. “So it is no surprise that AI glasses are taking off.”
During the event, Zuckerberg showcased how donning smart glasses allows him to capture video while walking and running at the same time. He showed how the smart glasses, when paired with a smart wristband, could be used to write and send text by subtly moving one’s fingers.
He played music and even tried to take a WhatsApp video call — though that live demo failed.
“We’ll debug that later,” Zuckerberg said on stage after he couldn’t answer the WhatsApp call using the wristband and glasses. “You know, you practice these things like 100 times and then, you know, you never know what’s going to happen.”
IDC, which provides market intelligence on consumer technology, estimates that Meta accounted for roughly 60% of the global market for display-less smart glasses, along with augmented and virtual reality headsets, during the second quarter of 2025.
From late 2023 to the second quarter of 2025, Meta has shipped more than 3.5 million pairs of its Ray-Ban smart glasses. IDC anticipates the market for smart glasses without displays will grow to 9.4 million in 2025, up 247.5% from 2024 and most of that will be driven by Meta.
Chinese tech companies such as Xiaomi and Huawei also sell smart glasses, but their sales still trail far behind Meta, and they’re not as well known in the U.S., according to IDC.
A lot has changed since tech companies released smart glasses more than a decade ago. Artificial intelligence has advanced, paving the way for the development of other types of hardware.
Smart glasses have become more affordable, now in the hundreds of dollars instead of more than $1,000. And people are less bothered about being filmed in public because that’s already happening with smartphones.
Tech companies still have to convince people that smart glasses provide enough value to spend hundreds of dollars on. And consumers, accustomed to whipping out their smartphones to record everything, might have to change their behavior.
“In some ways, we’re kind of returning to behaviors that were more natural,” Ubrani said. “Voice is a very natural user interface, as are hand gestures.”
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