- Samsung’s first XR glasses are here… sort of
- Gentle Monster and Warby Parker are behind the designs
- The glasses will be released later this year.
Samsung lifted the lid on its premium Android XR glasses at Google I/O 2026, and some well-known fashion brands have lent a hand, with Warby Parker and Gentle Monster offering their expertise in eyewear design.
But these glasses are not just a pleasure for the eyes; Above all, they are a smart companion for your phone. They will offer several assistive features, including navigation, summary notification readouts, real-time audio translation, and the ability to translate text on signs, among other AI tools. You can also use them to capture first-person photos and videos.
You can use all these features even when you have the phone in your pocket. The glasses feature cameras, speakers and microphones, and AI tasks are handled through a connection to your phone.
If you think these look a lot like Meta Ray-Ban glasses, then you’re not wrong – Warby Parker’s design even looks a bit like my smart Wayfarers – but there are a couple of key factors that will help these specs stand out from the competition (not just Meta, but other brands like Rokid and Even Realities).
First of all, its onboard intelligence is backed by Google Gemini. Google has done a lot to improve its AI capabilities in recent years, and while Meta hasn’t fallen asleep at the wheel at any point, Googlebot is generally seen as the most competent helper.
A big advantage Gemini has is that it can integrate natively with the Android app ecosystem, such as your calendar and email, where Meta has to make connections with individual apps and doesn’t offer the same seamless support.
Second, Samsung and Google advertise them as “a complementary device to a mobile phone.” While Meta’s technology is currently also a smartphone companion to some extent, it’s clear that the company’s goal is a dedicated Meta device that replaces your phone, while Samsung and Google want to make their glasses more like smartwatches, augmenting the smartphone experience.
Right now, this distinction isn’t so clear, but we could see it materialize in a significant way when these new specs are released, for example by relying on the phone’s artificial intelligence rather than cloud computing to offer a privacy advantage over its main rivals.
That said, Meta has the most important advantage right now: you can buy their glasses. Google, Samsung, Gentle Monster and Warby Parker remained tight-lipped on pricing and release dates. We only know that the glasses will land in “fall” in the US (September to November), and that additional details will be revealed “in the coming months.”
A fashion approach
While this teaser, rather than a full release, dampens my enthusiasm slightly, another interesting aspect comes from Gentle Monster and Warby Parker, and these companies suggest that they understand that technology is not the only important factor: these specifications must also look good.
Speaking about the Samsung XR announcement, Gentle Monster founder and CEO Hankook Kim said: “Smart glasses should be as emotionally expressive as they are technologically advanced.” He added: “Our vision was to fuse fashion and technology in a way that feels bold, beautiful and human, bringing Gentle Monster’s disruptive design identity into a new era of smart glasses with Samsung and Google.”
Dave Gilboa, co-founder and co-CEO of Warby Parker, said: “Eyewear is deeply personal, so every detail matters when integrating advanced technology into the frames people wear every day.”
This rings true with the brands’ respective designs. Although I’m a bit more “basic”, I see myself wearing the Warby Parker shapes every day, and even though I don’t personally love the Gentle Monster glasses, I love what the bold designs indicate: that these glasses are designed to appeal to a wide range of audiences.
We’re still missing some key details about Samsung’s glasses, but today’s presentation has given me a lot to be excited about – for Android XR and for glasses in general.
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