2025 will be smart glasses all the way

2024 was a A busy year for spatial computing, culminated in the release of two major virtual reality headsets: powerful but expensive Apple Vision Pro And more affordable Meta Quest 3S. While these devices transport their users to large areas, strange Digital worlds, too, can feel restrictive, as they reduce – or even cut off – the wearer’s connection to the real world.

This is where their lighter, more wearable cousins ​​come in: smart glasses. It turns out that a lot of people like a device that you can take out of the house and onto the street. There’s incredible convenience in digitally interacting with the real world while actually looking at it, all without blocking your view with a bulky headset or being distracted by a phone screen.

These easily accessible face computers have come a long way since the days Glass hole. Smart glasses — which I’ll loosely define here as internet-connected glasses with apps built into them — have crossed the divide from the era of unattractive wearables like Google Glass to truly useful devices that you might not even be ashamed to wear in public.

Ray-Ban is dead He is the big dog in the smart glasses box. deada company whose reputation has often sunk Problematic Ray-Ban has been able to capitalize on the established cool factor of the Ray-Ban brand to create a line of smart glasses that people actually love. It looks beautiful and has real functions that many people can easily understand Supporters Find it incredibly useful. They can take photos and videos, act as a headset for music and calls, and use Meta AI-powered voice features to send texts or ask about something 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 see what song is playing near you. All of this happens without a built-in screen, which means you can keep your eyes on real life.

The success of Ray-Ban Meta Frames has shown that there is a market for display-free smart glasses that don’t just work like VR-light. Small companies and startups are coming forward with every type of smart lens imaginable. This year alone, we’ve seen new smart glasses, or the technology needed to power them, from companies like Oppo glasses, waveand Emtech. Some were a little goofy and disappointing, like Wonderful Labs frames Released in May. Others have not yet been realized, such as the company’s glasses Loktic Which works with a variety of different chatbots and has been billed Potential killers of Meta Ray-Ban The project recently exceeded its funding target (by a large margin). Kickstarter.

However, display-based AR glasses are still in the works. After all, a device gives the wearer an active display or provides a window onto com. mirrorworld It has long been considered the copper ring of spatial computing. Meta seeks to achieve this goal through Orion glasses– A pair of ambitious augmented reality technologies that, while still deep in development, aim to do everything your smartphone can do, but on your face. pop There’s a player here too, with cyberpunky glasses With apps that focus on social interactions for their younger, more playful users.

Through the glass

Another world of augmented reality has recently awakened. In early December, Google announced its launch Android A software platform that includes an upcoming pair of smart glasses with an in-lens display. Google’s efforts are also a work in progress, but the company has an advantage given the sheer size of its developer partners already building on many Android platforms. Google Glass powers Android apps, essentially taking a lot of the stuff you currently have on a smartphone — maps, text messages, news feeds — and putting them right in front of your eyeballs.

“They’re probably the closest tier-one big competitors that can ship something to compete with Meta,” says Anshil Sag, principal analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy. “There’s no display in the Meta yet. So they might beat the Meta to shipping one with a display.