Augmented World Expo this week will give us the best look yet at the state of the art in high-tech eyewear.
AI is wildly disrupting the world at large, and tech more specifically, and one manifestation of that is the advent of new devices like smart glasses. I've been covering the emergence of wearables, virtual reality and augmented reality for over 15 years, but the current moment is more in flux than any I've witnessed.
This week, I'll be in Long Beach, California, for AWE 2026, the biggest AR/VR-focused conference of the year. I'll be seeing and reporting on what's new and how AI is taking up residence in what a lot of companies hope will be everyday eyewear for all of us.
Meta already has tons of smart glasses, Google is releasing a wave of its own later this year, and Snap, a maker of smart glasses for years before Meta, has a pair of augmented reality Spectacles planned for 2026 as well. Apple's new infusion of Siri AI into all its devices, announced last week at WWDC -- where I got an in-depth look at how Siri works -- hints at smart glasses that could arrive next year. It's a lot to keep track of.
VR's still got things going on, too. Apple is evolving its Vision Pro software, Bytedance-owned Pico has a high-end mixed-reality headset on its way, and Valve's standalone Steam Frame should arrive this summer. Google and Xreal are pushing into new territory with the VR-like, glasses-sized Project Aura, also expected this year.
All this in the middle of inflation and soaring electronics prices. At AWE, I'll be asking questions and exploring what's happening while Google, Meta and Apple keep advancing in the space, and peeking around the corner at chips, displays and sensors (and experiences) that could show us where wearables are heading next.
Editors' note:* Scott Stein's travel costs for the AWE conference were covered by Snap. The judgments and opinions of CNET are our own.*
What sorts of apps should be made for glasses? #
There are so many smart glasses being made by so many companies right now, but so little good thought being put into how to develop for them. That's partly because many of them rely on AI as their primary "app," serving up information or fulfilling requests on demand.
There should be better ideas, though, especially with Google's Android XR promising to extend apps to Google's glasses, new smart glasses like Even Realities' G2 that have a growing ecosystem of mini apps for their monochrome displays, Snap's roster of augmented reality lens developers and Meta opening up app development for its display-enabled Ray-Bans.
I'll be speaking at a panel about immersive storytelling at AWE, thinking about how to solve some of these questions. I'm curious to find out for myself.