Google Unveils AI Audio Glasses at I/O, Partnering With Samsung, Warby Parker, and Gentle Monster

Google offered its first public look at audio smart glasses powered by its Gemini AI assistant on Tuesday at the company's annual I/O developers conference in Mountain View, California, entering a wearables segment where rival Meta has built an early lead.

The glasses, developed in partnership with Samsung and eyewear brands Warby Parker and Gentle Monster, will work with both Android and iOS devices and are slated to be available later this year.

"These are the first two designs of a bigger collection coming this fall," said Shahram Izadi, head of Android XR products and platform, during the keynote address.

The devices are designed to deliver information audibly rather than through a visual display. Izadi described the experience as information "spoken into your ear privately, rather than shown in a display."

At the conference, Product Manager Nishtha Bhatia demonstrated the glasses by using the audio sunglasses to launch Gemini, connect to DoorDash, and order a coffee. She also had Gemini read a summary of unread text messages and add a calendar event. According to Google, the glasses can provide turn-by-turn navigation, allow users to ask Gemini about objects they see, take photos, and use Google's AI image generator Nano Banana to apply creative edits to images.

Google's entry into audio eyewear comes as Meta has established a foothold in the category through its Ray-Ban smart glasses, developed in partnership with EssilorLuxottica. Those glasses sold 7 million units in 2025, representing a bright spot for Meta's Reality Labs unit, which has continued to record significant quarterly losses. In September, Meta also released display glasses that allow users to view messages, photo previews, and live captions through a lens-embedded display.

Apple is reportedly developing its own smart glasses across multiple frame styles and camera configurations, while Snap and Alibaba have also introduced AI-enabled eyewear products.

Google announced smart display glasses last year and confirmed in December that it was developing audio-only glasses for its Android XR platform. The company did not address privacy terms related to the new glasses during Tuesday's event. Analysts have noted that user data collected through wearable devices carries significant value for improving AI models — an incentive Google itself acknowledged in the context of the product.

The glasses announcement was one of several AI-related reveals at I/O on Tuesday, which also included new AI models and AI agents.

The move signals Google's continued effort to position itself in emerging device categories as the technology industry debates which form factors will define the next phase of AI-powered computing. Whether audio glasses can achieve mainstream adoption at scale remains an open question — one that Google, Meta, Apple, and a growing field of competitors are all racing to answer.