Google’s Smart Glasses Plan To One-Up Meta’s Ray-Bans With These 4 New Features

Google has partnered with Gentle Monster and Warby Parker to deliver what it calls intelligent eyewear, basically smart glasses to rival Meta’s Ray-Ban series. Yes, new Google smart glasses are coming, finally. Some of the major features they’ll offer include the option to look up directions, send texts and other messages, and snap photos all from the glasses themselves “without taking out your phone,” according to Google. Not unlike Meta’s Ray-Bans and Oakleys, Google’s up-and-coming frames are designed to be stylish and traditional-looking — they don’t look like big, bulky goggles with electronics crammed inside.

The first models to launch will be audio glasses, in the fall, and they will include Google’s voice assistant so you can ask questions, navigate the world, and interact in new ways, like snapping high-quality photos based on what you’re looking at. Other companies working on Google’s smart glasses include Samsung, Gentle Monster, Xreal — known for its excellent AR varieties — and Google with self-branded options. If Google plays its hand right, there are quite a few ways these new smart glasses can succeed where Google Glass failed. 

The real question is what features Google will offer that give it the upper hand over Meta’s devices? It’s worth noting that, more than likely, many features won’t be available at launch, especially with audio glasses comprising the first rollout. But they are on their way, and certainly worth discussing. Here are some of the most exciting ones.

Meta’s Ray-Bans and Oakleys don’t include screens. They’re audio-only, pretty much exactly like the initial releases that Google’s smart glasses lineup will provide. Those first experiences will be centered around Google’s Assistant, audio commands, and AI-driven features — like asking Google to send a quick text message to a friend you’re meeting. But built-in displays are planned and already on their way. Warby Parker is working on a pair of augmented reality (AR) glasses with a single internal display. But it does make a lot of sense to perfect the experience without a screen first. That way, you don’t need it, and it’s not a distraction while you’re wearing the glasses.

Google is also reportedly working on models with displays, one at its headquarters in Mountain View with a dual-display setup. Having personally used AR glasses from Xreal and RayNeo, I completely understand the appeal of eyewear with built-in displays. You can’t really fathom the wonder of such a thing until you’re watching a 200-inch personal screen equivalent that no one else can see. Smart glasses are not likely to have that kind of immersive and cinematic functionality, but a small display to present critical information could be useful.

Love it or hate it, AI is being integrated into a lot of what Google is offering via Gemini. Google’s next generation of smart glasses will be taking advantage of that, as well, with an always-on Gemini Live mode. It’s similar to the way Meta’s Ray-Bans allow you to interact with the voice assistant — “Hey Meta, what time is my appointment?” Google has a big one-up over Meta, however, both in terms of usability and contextual capabilities.

The glasses will be synced and connected to your phone for starters. You can also reference and relay information back and forth, resulting in a more coherent ecosystem for users. It sounds like you’ll be able to do a lot of the fun things, too, like asking Gemini for tips on playing board games, looking up information for plants and objects you see in the world around you, and much more. Informing the AI will be embedded cameras, microphones, and speakers, which obviously present some privacy risks — the same that already exist with Meta’s products.

Existing smart glasses have been shown to record intimate and private moments, and there’s a high likelihood that Google’s devices will raise similar concerns. Although Meta appears to be taking that a step further with a terrifying new upgrade that introduces facial recognition tech. Meta also had contractors watching recorded videos without consent, and while it’s unknown how Google aims to approach content usage, it probably won’t be anything to that degree.

One of my favorite features about the Meta Ray-Bans and audio glasses is the ability to play localized audio, sort of like you would with earbuds or headphones. The speakers in the glasses play the music close to your ears, and while it sounds loud to you, it’s not quite as detectable to those around you as you might think. Google’s audio glasses and upcoming smart glasses will offer the same functionality. It makes for some very interesting scenarios where you can use the glasses to listen to music via Bluetooth, podcasts, audiobooks, or even connect to other devices like a TV to watch movies.

However, with Meta’s devices, the audio is somewhat muted. Google’s offerings, particularly the Warby Parker glasses,  have a higher quality audio, improving the immersion and dynamics. Bass response is generally poor with the Ray-Ban speakers. Even when you don’t use them to listen to music, that performance bleeds into other use-cases, like when you’re taking hands-free calls, listening to other audio, or interacting with the on-device assistant. Google could win on that front if the speakers are much improved.

During demonstrations, Google’s smart glasses, the Warby Parker frames again, were able to connect to smartwatches, similar to how they work with smartphones. At Google I/O, and as part of its Project Aura in partnership with Xreal, Google briefly discussed the connectivity with Wear OS smartwatches. On stage, its representatives demonstrated an example where photos taken with the smart glasses showed up on a connected smartwatch screen for review. That’s a great and quick way to double-check your captures rather than whipping out your phone.

The presenters took a photo of the audience with the glasses and asked Gemini to deliver an edited version in a new style. It worked. Wear OS should also be able to tap into advanced automation and quick access controls. For instance, if you have music or media playing on your glasses, you might see playback controls on your smartwatch that you can leverage with a simple tap.

A unique audio routing feature might also allow you to play media from your smartwatch directly to your glasses as you would with a pair of headphones. Meta’s smart glasses don’t offer anything like that as of this writing, and just the fact that Google can leverage its Wear OS smartwatch platform in unique ways makes it all very exciting.