Google takes a page out of Meta’s book, announces new audio-powered smart glasses

Google is getting (back) into the smart glasses game.

At Google I/O on Tuesday, the company announced a new partnership with Warby Parker and Gentle Monster to produce a new line of AI-powered glasses. The company says that the devices will be built to pair with Android and iOS devices and were designed in collaboration with Samsung. They will be available later this year, the company said.

Google is calling the new devices “audio glasses,” in that users will be able to issue verbal commands to them and get things done via its ecosystem of apps and services, including Gemini.

The user simply talks to their glasses (the demo shared on Tuesday involved a Googler ordering a coffee online by merely talking to the glasses), and the device, when synced, complies.

Google has dabbled in smart glasses a number of times over the years. It notoriously launched Google Glass years ago, which ultimately helped spawn the derogatory term “glassholes.”

The smart glasses space has changed a little bit since then, however. Lately, major companies — most notably Meta — and a small army of startups and smaller firms, have invested in the space.