In 2025, smart glasses will be at the bottom

2024 was a A big year for spatial computing, which ended with the release of two major virtual reality headsets: the powerful but expensive ones Apple Vision Pro and the more affordable Meta Quest 3S. While these devices take their users to huge, strange In the digital realm, they can also feel restrictive because they reduce or even break the wearer’s connection to the real world.

This is where their lighter, (ahem) more portable cousins ​​come into play: smart glasses. It turns out that many people like a device that can be taken out of the house and into the street. It’s incredibly convenient to digitally interact with the real world while actually looking at it, all without having your view obscured by a bulky headset or distracted by a phone screen.

These more accessible face computers have come a long way since the days of… Glass hole. Smart glasses—which I’ll loosely define here as Internet-connected glasses with built-in apps—have bridged the gap from an era of silly, unattractive wearables like Google Glass to genuinely useful devices that you might not even be embarrassed to wear in public .

Meta Ban Ray is the big dog among data glasses. Metaa company whose reputation has often been compromised by its own reputation problematic Uncoolness has managed to leverage the Ray-Ban brand’s long-established cool factor to produce a range of smart glasses that people really like. They look good and have real functionality that is easy for many people to understand Supporter find it incredibly useful. You can take photos and videos, act as a headset for music and calls, and use Meta AI voice features to send texts or ask about anything in the world. New features added this month Give the glasses the ability to do things like remember where you parked your car and use Shazam to find out what song is playing near you. This all happens without a built-in display, so you can keep an eye on real life.

The success of the Ray-Ban Meta frames has shown that there is a market for display-free smart glasses that don’t just work like VR light. Smaller companies and startups are coming up with all sorts of smart lenses. This year alone we’ve seen new smart glasses or the technology to run them from companies like… Oppo glasses, VaryAnd Emteq. Some were a bit silly and disappointing Brilliant Labs frame published in May. Others have yet to be realized, such as the company’s glasses Looktech that work with a variety of different chatbots and have been billed as potential meta-Ray-Ban killers after the project recently (far) exceeded its funding goal Kickstarter.

However, display-controlled AR glasses are still in the race. After all, it is a device that offers the wearer an active heads-up display or a window into the Mirror world has long been considered the brass ring of spatial computing. Meta is pursuing this goal with his Orion glasses– a pair of ambitious AR tech that, while still deep in the development process, aims to do pretty much everything your smartphone can do, but at your fingertips. Snap is also here in a player, with Cyberpunky Glasses with apps focused on social interactions for younger, more playful users.

Through the glass

Another augmented reality leviathan has recently awakened. Beginning of December Google announced the launch of his Android XR Software platform that includes upcoming smart glasses with a display in the lenses. Google’s efforts are also in the works, but the company has an advantage due to the sheer size of its developer partners already building on the many Android platforms. Google’s glasses run Android apps, essentially taking many of the things currently stored on a smartphone – maps, text messages, news feeds – and bringing them right in front of your eyes.

“They are probably the closest of the large, top-tier competitors that can deliver something to compete with Meta,” says Anshel Sag, principal analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy. “Meta doesn’t have a display yet. So they could even beat Meta to delivering one with a display.”