In case you haven’t noticed: smart glasses are having a big moment. Every tech company, small or large, is racing ahead with a computer for our faces whether we like the idea or not. Privacy be damned, the face is the next battleground.
Meta’s Ray-Ban-branded smart glasses—with and without a built-in display—are the pairs to beat. But despite their promising early sales success, it still feels like there isn’t a “killer” feature yet outside of cameras that can capture POV shots. On this week’s The Next Interface, Gizmodo senior writer James Pero wonders whether Meta’s smart glasses will ever find their “eureka” moment the way that the Apple Watch did with fitness and health features.
He makes a compelling case that Meta could cede its smart glasses lead to the likes of Samsung, Google, and Apple due to a lack of apps and mediocre AI capabilities. Without a phone, Meta’s smart glasses might only ever be accessories to other phones unless Meta creates a completely standalone pair that operates on its own—something like the Orion AR glasses concept it showed off in 2024.
Maybe Meta will figure things out as developers make apps for its smart glasses. Or maybe it’ll never find that “killer” feature to convince the masses that smart glasses are The Next Big Thing. All we know right now is that it’s a Wild West for smart glasses—they’re all works in progress and may be for more years to come.