en.Wedoany.com Reported - At the Google I/O 2026 conference, which opened on May 19 in Mountain View, California, Google US and Samsung Electronics Korea jointly unveiled an AI smart glasses co-designed with two renowned eyewear brands, Warby Parker and Gentle Monster, expected to officially launch this fall. This marks the first public appearance of the product's design since the two tech giants announced their collaboration with eyewear brands last December, and signals Google's full-scale return to the smart glasses market after shelving the Google Glass project in 2012.
Google and Samsung define this product as a new category of "smart glasses." The first audio glasses version released does not feature a screen; all information output is delivered through built-in speakers. For input, the device is equipped with multiple cameras and microphones, allowing users to wake Google's AI assistant Gemini by saying "Hey Google" or tapping the side of the frame. Kim Jung-hyun, Vice President of Samsung Electronics' MX Division, stated: "This AI glasses will become an important milestone in Samsung's expansion of its AI vision." Shahram Izadi, Vice President and General Manager of Google's Android XR business, pointed out that smart glasses represent a substantial step forward in the shared vision of both parties to integrate AI more naturally into daily life.
In terms of eyewear design, the two major collaborating brands bring distinctly different aesthetic approaches. Korean brand Gentle Monster champions a "disruptive yet refined" avant-garde fashion style, while American brand Warby Parker presents a "refined and timeless" classic design. Warby Parker co-founder and co-CEO Dave Gilboa stated that glasses are the most personal tech product for daily use, and the company adheres to the core principles of quality eyewear—beautiful design, precise optics, and all-day wearing comfort—while integrating advanced technology. The debut style features a classic round silhouette, crafted from ultra-lightweight elastic nylon in a dark green color, with semi-transparent finishes on the inner temples, showcasing the built-in technology while maintaining an overall clean and elegant look.
AI functionality is the core highlight of these smart glasses. Leveraging the Android XR platform, the glasses achieve real-time interactive capabilities independent of a smartphone through built-in speakers and an AI camera matrix. For real-time translation, Gemini can not only translate conversational speech but also match the speaker's original tone and pitch, while simultaneously interpreting text within the user's line of sight, such as menus or street signs, and relaying it into their ear. For navigation and lifestyle services, the device can provide natural language turn-by-turn navigation based on the user's location and orientation, recommend nearby restaurants or coffee shops based on user preferences, and even complete food delivery orders directly via DoorDash. For information and image processing, users can take photos and record videos via voice commands, and utilize Google's Nano Banana AI tool to perform editing operations like background object removal directly on the device.
Notably, Google and Samsung explicitly position the audio glasses as a "companion device" to the smartphone, rather than standalone hardware. To this end, the system has been specifically optimized for linkage with the phone: it can answer calls, read out text message summaries, and automatically add events to the calendar without taking the phone out. In terms of compatibility, the product adopts an open strategy, announcing support for pairing with both Android phones and iPhones, breaking the convention of Google's self-developed devices only working with Android phones.
Privacy design is another key point where this product attempts to differentiate itself from the original Google Glass. Shahram Izadi specifically emphasized before the launch event: "We must raise the bar and design for privacy from the ground up." Google and Samsung plan to share more specific details about privacy safeguards in the coming months. What is currently known is that when the glasses' camera function is activated, an LED indicator light on the device will illuminate to inform people nearby that the camera is working. Pricing and specific release dates have not yet been announced; Samsung indicated that more details will be disclosed gradually over the next few months.
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