Google and Samsung have officially unveiled their jointly developed artificial intelligence-powered smart glasses at Google I/O 2026, marking one of the most significant wearable technology announcements from either company in years and representing Google’s most serious attempt to put computing on people’s faces since the culturally troubled Google Glass experiment more than a decade ago. The glasses are powered by Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro and run on the Android XR platform, are expected to ship in select markets this autumn, and will be compatible with both Android and iOS devices. Rather than positioning the product as a science-fiction device, Google and Samsung have taken a deliberately grounded approach, partnering with established eyewear brands to ensure the hardware looks and feels like something people would actually wear in daily life.
The smart glasses have been developed in collaboration with luxury eyewear brands Gentle Monster and Warby Parker, with Samsung handling hardware development and Google powering the software experience through Android XR, and the companies showcased two stylish designs aimed at both premium fashion users and mainstream consumers. The first generation of the product is being described as audio glasses, meaning the initial devices do not feature built-in displays inside the lenses but include cameras, microphones, and speakers for artificial intelligence-driven interactions, allowing users to ask Gemini questions about their surroundings, get restaurant recommendations, receive message summaries, translate conversations in real time, and capture photos or videos directly through the frames. Users can activate the assistant by saying “Hey Google” or tapping the side of the frame. A Display Edition is planned for a later release, adding a monocular microLED heads-up display capable of showing turn-by-turn directions, notifications, and artificial intelligence-generated responses directly in the wearer’s field of view.
The agentic functionality built into the glasses is what separates them most clearly from competing products currently on the market. Google calls this layer Gemini Intelligence, and it handles multi-step tasks in the background while the glasses act as the voice and camera front end, with the DoorDash ordering demonstration at Google I/O being the most concrete example Google offered on stage, alongside ride-hailing through Uber and language tutoring through Mondly also referenced as use cases that follow the same pattern. Beyond the audio glasses, there is also Project Aura, a developer-focused kit built with XREAL that features full binocular displays and a 70-degree field of view, aimed at encouraging third-party development on the Android XR platform and expected to launch by the end of 2026, with Android XR serving as the operating system layer spanning the full range of extended-reality hardware from affordable audio frames all the way up to mixed-reality headsets. Pricing for the Warby Parker and Gentle Monster models has not yet been announced, though Google said further details are coming in the months ahead. For context, Meta’s Ray-Ban Display, the closest direct comparison currently available on the market, starts at $799.
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