Google unveils plans to try again with smart glasses in 2026

Liv McMahonTechnology reporter

Google Close-up of a woman wearing glasses. She smiles and has long red hair. The glasses are black, with thick frames, the lenses seem slightly translucent.

Google plans to launch artificial intelligence (AI)-powered smart glasses in 2026 after its previous high-profile attempt to enter the market ended in failure.

The tech giant had high hopes in 2013 when it introduced Google Glass. some call them the future of technology despite its strange appearance with a bulky screen located above the right eye.

Google discontinued the product in 2015, less than seven months after it launched in the UK, but is now planning to re-enter the market with smart glasses that will have a cleaner look.

But this comes after Meta had already made a splash with its smart specs, selling two million pairs as of February.

Google's new technology will allow users to interact with its own artificial intelligence products, such as the Gemini chatbot.

The company plans to release two different versions: one designed to provide assistance without any screen, and the other with a display on the glasses themselves.

While Google said the first of two types of AI glasses the company is working on would arrive in 2026, it did not provide further information about what form they would take.

Technology analyst Paolo Pescatore told the BBC the tech firm “must avoid the pitfalls of its previous failure.”

“The move may have been ahead of its time and poorly conceived and executed,” he said.

“Now is the right time thanks to the success of Gemini.”

Google co-founder Sergey Brin demonstrated Google Glass on stage at an event in 2012.

Bloomberg via Getty Images Sergei Brin wears a black long-sleeve top and Google Glass. He looks directly into the lens of the camera filming him, with one hand hovering over the right side of his Google digital glasses. On the right lens of the glasses, next to the black box that houses the glasses' camera, is a small red and black digital display. — Google co-founder Sergey Brin demonstrated Google Glass on stage at an event in 2012.

Google will also have to compete with Meta, which introduced its own AI-powered glasses earlier this year, building on existing collaborations with luxury eyewear brands Ray-Ban and Oakley.

The sector saw a surge in the first half of 2025, driven by demand for Meta devices and the launch of similar products by smaller brands, according to research firm Counterpoint Research.

It said sales of AI glasses grew by more than 250% compared to the previous year.

What went wrong with Google Glass?

Google Glass launched in 2013 as a pair of thin, frame-framed glasses with a chunky right arm that housed a camera built into the corner of the right lens.

Owners will be able to use the camera to take images and record their surroundings while interacting with the digital display.

The device created a lot of excitement when it first appeared at a Google event in June 2012.

But after its launch the following year, concerns arose about its impact on privacy, the potential for abuse, and questions about its style and usefulness – and they grew until Google Google said it will stop making them in this form in 2015.

Updated version of Google Glass Enterprise. appeared two years later but retired in 2023.

Former BBC technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones was among those who considered Google's device in its original form a “failure”.

The success of so-called wearable computers he wrotewill likely depend on having the technology to realize their potential and making sure they are “both attractive to wear and so easy to use that you forget you have them.”

Today, tech giants are trying to make AI and smart glasses more comfortable to wear by partnering with designer eyewear brands and can pack more power and features into smaller, sleeker frames.

But concerns about privacy and usability remain.