Apple will reportedly release smart glasses next year

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports that Apple aims to release smart glasses by the end of 2026. This product would be equipped with cameras, microphones and speakers so that a wearer could interact with the Siri voice assistant. The glasses would also support activities such as listening to music, taking phone calls or hearing step-by-step directions to a location.

Apple has long been working toward an end goal of true augmented reality glasses, but it has faced several hurdles in getting its AI endeavors to parity with other rivals. We're expecting a lot of AI announcements during WWDC 2025 in a few weeks, but some of them may be met with skepticism after the slow and sometimes rocky rollout of its Apple Intelligence suite.

Meanwhile, other companies have already made waves with AI-enabled smart glasses. Meta has seen a fair amount of success from its partnership with Ray-Ban. Google recently unveiled new plans for its Android XR mixed reality glasses with a demo during its I/O showcase earlier this week. And OpenAI is getting in on the hardware game thanks to its acquisition of Jony Ive's io design startup, although it hasn't offered details yet on planned projects. Apple's project sounds more akin to the Meta option than to the display-equipped model Google showed off, but we'll likely hear more specifics soon.

While Apple pushes to ready smart glasses for next year, it has abandoned some other wearables projects. According to Gurman's sources, the company has left the idea of a camera-equipped Apple Watch and Apple Watch Ultra by the wayside. However, AirPods with cameras appear to still be in development.

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