- Google revealed prototype gillows ar in Ted
- Apparently, those glasses are being made by Samsung under Android XR
- According to reports, AR glasses will be launched in 2026
The Ray-Ban Meta Smart glasses have been a wild success, and it seems that Samsung and Apple have realized that the duo plans to launch their own Android XR and Apple XR glasses.
We had our first look at the Android XR glasses last week during a Ted talk organized by the chief of augmented reality of Google and the extended reality, Shahram left.
The specifications are a significantly smaller package than the Project Moohan Android XR Google and Samsung headphones are collaborating (through axios), and you can see the headphones behind it on a shelf to have a sensation of the difference in size.
In the surprise demonstration, Izadi used the glasses to perform some tasks, including the live translation of the Farsi into English, scanning a book using their incorporated cameras and helping them find their keys using a feature called ‘Memory’. They also pack on a screen so that the user can receive information visually, not only through audio signals.
Now, The Korea Economic Daily states that this prototype is Samsung made under the existing Android XR association of the duo, and is scheduled to launch next year.
While leaks should be taken with a pinch of salt, we have heard many reports that Meta plans to launch their Smart Ray-Ban target glasses with a screen at the end of this year, so it is not out of the question that an Android XR device could follow shortly after.
What is more, given how impressive the prototype seems to be, to be able to perform a series of tasks in an elegant package, again it seems likely Google and Samsung are not far from having a product ready for the consumer. I just hope they are not as expensive as it is rumored that the finish goggles are.
What is Apple doing?
Apple is also interested in creating Archian specifications, according to Mark Gurman of Bloomberg (behind a payment wall). According to people familiar with Apple’s plans “it is the only thing that is really spending their time from the point of view of product development.”
Although according to Gurman, Apple’s glasses could still be a few years.
Because true glasses cannot yet be achieved in Apple’s mind (according to people who know), apparently first want to concentrate on equipping their Apple Watch and Airpods with AI cameras to achieve some of the functions of Ray-Ban target glasses that we have today.
Given Apple’s struggles with AI on iPhone 16, it makes sense that you currently would not want to focus on intelligent artificial intelligence glasses, although you consider that it could be late for the glasses party considering how soon Samsung, Google and Meta sets specifications are expected.
As with all the leaks and speculation, we will have to wait and see what Apple has under the sleeve, but it could benefit from the same advantage that Google will be, one that goal lacks.
The smartphone synergy strategy
The most surprising part of the Google prototype is that the XR device looks like a horrible lot that other ar prototype glasses that we have seen, such as the specifications of Meta Orion Ar and the Spetacles developer kit of 5th SNAP gene. This is because it is apparently taking advantage of Google’s greatest advantage: an Android phone according to Izadi.
He explained: “These glasses work with their phone, transmitting from one side to another, which allows the glasses to be very light and access all the applications of your phone.”
Because they lack their own telephone brands in which to trust, goal and Snap ideally they would want users to trust only on their own independent platform, one on which they have full control to introduce the applications and experiences that they want to build the most. Control they don’t have when Android simply removes them through telephone applications.
Google, seeing the Android ecosystem run, is probably not interested in still abandoning their phones.
Therefore, their glasses are designed to take advantage of the processors on their phone instead of a sophisticated chipset integrated in the glasses themselves (although we suspect that they still have a small processing power on board for simple visualization and camera operations).
This allows Google to eliminate part of the mass that requires a set of robust chips, such as sophisticated cooling and a larger battery, to create a thinner final product without sacrificing general performance (at least in theory).
Apple could take advantage of a similar relationship for smartphones with its own AR specifications, although the focus of third parties of Meta and Snap has an advantage in which they are agnostics of the system. You can use which smartphone you want, or you may not even need a smartphone.
Hopefully Google’s symbiotic relationship between its glasses and phones will result in intelligent specifications that are not as expensive as their competitors, since they do not need to pack so many components. For example, the next goal XR glasses are expected to cost up to $ 1,400 (£ 1,100 / au $ 2,200).
For now, we will have to wait and see, but the intelligent specifications of Google and Samsung seem promising, and if they are configured to launch next year 2026 it cannot arrive sufficiently.
