Fourteen years ago, Sergey Brin parachuted into Google I/O to announce Google Glass. As anyone with a passing knowledge of technology knows by now, there were probably some days in the next few years where Brin wished his parachute had failed, because Google Glass was roundly considered a failure on the commercial level, and the consumer version of the product was sunsetted only a few years later (an enterprise version hung on for several years after). Among other issues, Google Glass was simply not attractive or cool, and people wearing them earned the derisive nickname “glassholes.”
With today’s announcements at Google I/O, the glasshole era officially comes to an end. The announcement about the glasses, dubbed “intelligent eyewear,” led with form; Google announced partnerships with Warby Parker and Gentle Monster, and the glasses look virtually indistinguishable from glasses someone would wear every day. This will serve Google well as it competes with Meta for market share; Meta has partnered with Ray-Bans and Mark Zuckerberg’s recent appearance at the Met Gala points to deals with other fashion brands in the eyewear space.
So the form is set; what about the function? Those of us who are excited about display glasses will have to wait until 2027 to see what Google is building, but the audio glasses releasing later this year still offer plenty to be excited about. In fact, they offer more applications than other glasses currently in the market (a list that seems to grow every day), simply because Google has such a massive ecosystem of partners.
Unlike Meta’s compelling but error-riddled glasses demo last fall, the use cases Google showed off worked pretty flawlessly. They also offered examples that many people would want in their daily lives, like directions. As anyone who has walked down the street anytime in the last fifteen years knows, plenty of people are looking down at their phones for directions and then looking up, and that means they’re not paying attention and walking more slowly than normal. As someone who deals with this on the subway on a daily basis, the idea that people could just listen to directions while otherwise looking straight ahead and paying attention to their surroundings is enough to make me drop my credit card.
The next use case is even more interesting, because it shows how Google is integrating with other apps and could in fact disrupt the smartphone app economy in a profound way. Asking the glasses to take care of your usual coffee order by simply speaking to your glasses doesn’t seem revolutionary, but if apps rely on recommendations or advertisements for revenue and then all of a sudden, no one needs to open the app to get the benefit of using it, that could be a radical shift.
Like the Meta glasses, the Google glasses also have a camera. The two use cases presented were pretty anodyne; the glasses can capture an image and Gemini can answer questions about it and provide more information. In the other case, the presenter did the usual tech conference trick of taking a picture of the audience (although in this case she then used Nano Banana to edit it). The photo turned out fine and was sent to her watch and presumably saved somewhere on her phone.
Time will tell whether this capability will provoke the same backlash that the Meta glasses have. The initial Google Glasses sparked a fury, but things have changed in the intervening years, and many people live with the knowledge that they are likely recorded throughout the day while they are out in public. As more glasses with this capability hit the market, there will probably be some consternation, but then a sense of acceptance (although laws against filming in private areas should be upheld and proactively asking for consent where possible should be normalized).
One thing is certainly clear – smartglasses are going to become the new normal. Snap, Meta and Google are in the market and investing heavily. Chinese players like XReal and Viture are growing, alongside Mentra, Even Realities, and Solos. There are glasses aimed at gamers and glasses aimed at athletes, like Engo. Consumers will start adopting them and enterprises will need to start mapping strategies soon – Snap has already taken a lead in this space by hiring Wayne Scullino from Apple to lead their enterprise partnerships. Speaking of Apple, they are rumored to be building in the space as well.
The announcements at Google I/O today were certainly more low-key than the skydiving entrance all those years ago – but in the long term, they might turn out to be more memorable – and impactful.
