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.
Google’s Two-Pronged AI Strategy
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.
Indian Market Reality: Price and Practicality
While AI smart glasses are all the rage in the tech world, the world rarely sees a glimpse of these in real life. For the common man or even the regular corporate employee in India, these smart glasses are a novelty and out of reach primarily due to their steep pricing, and impracticality in usage for those outside of tech-leaning jobs. These products are largely attractive to innovation leaders, enterprise decision makers, or XR industry professionals, said a reviewer of the product in a report.
Innovations in the smart glasses arena are unending. However, a lag in its adoption by consumers in India is still a reality. Meta Ray Ban glasses, which arrived in the Indian market in November and almost immediately went on sale, are priced from Rs 29,000 to Rs 35,700, and the newest release, the Meta Ray Ban AI display glasses — the most advanced — are priced at Rs 1,89,999, which come with an EMG wristband that translates the signals created by the wearer’s muscles into commands for your glasses. However, news reports in December state that Meta has confirmed that the Ray-Ban Meta glasses will soon support secure UPI QR-code payments of under Rs 1,000 using UPI Lite.
In the US, however, Meta reported strong sales of their AI glasses, sharing that the newest model of the smart glasses were sold out from all stores within the first 48 hours.
As for the Apple Vision Pro, which is an XR headset launched by Apple earlier this year, with many of the features that an AI smart glass would have, the product is priced at Rs 3,70,000 and upwards. The product comes with Zeiss optical inserts, which can be customised to the user’s vision, and has XR capabilities allowing the user to not only play movies and video games like a VR headset, but to also perform functions like take and make audio and video calls, perform work tasks and more. The glaring differences and also perhaps the reasons for its under-performance in the market is the lack of ease in using it on the streets and in daily life — as a directional guide, as a live translation tool, and other important tasks, as can be done with smart glasses.
Meta is also developing its version of an MR (mixed reality) headset, combining virtual reality and augmented reality. The device was meant to launch in late 2026, but has now been pushed to 2027.
As for Google’s smart glasses, the expansion of the XR platforms and partnerships with Warby Parker, Android and so on, is also being viewed as a move to improve on or correct certain mistakes made in the Google Glass version of the prototype, which was Google’s first foray into the smart glasses world almost 10 years ago. This time, the Google product cleared the testing phase with flying colours, garnering praise from nearly all tech writers and experts who sampled it.
The first Google Glass had completely flopped as it displayed many glitches and brought up a wave of privacy concerns since it could capture images, record video and implement edits a little too easily, among others. Google has fixed this by adding a light at the corner of the frame which lights up when the camera is in use, that way both the wearer and those around them will know that the person is actively using a recording device.
However, Google is certain that AI-enabled smart glasses will play a significant role in whatever the next big computing device will be. So much so, that Google has created these smart glasses to be compatible with iPhones as well — Android’s strongest competitor.
