The Biggest AR Flop Ever Is Back With a Pair of Smart Glasses

If new hardware from Magic Leap was on your AR bingo card, congratulations, today is your day. Turns out the once-buzzy AR company is back in a big way with a new prototype of AR smart glasses that is being developed in tandem with Google, the tech company that also made big promises with AR glasses and which also flopped hard. While there isn’t a ton of information on the prototype, there are some initial pictures, and they look like what you’d expect from a modern pair of smart glasses with a display, which is to say, a lot like the Meta Ray-Ban Display.

Magic Leap is partnering with technology leaders to accelerate their AR glasses roadmap through deep expertise and technologies that deliver visuals that are stable, crisp, and clear. This week at @FIIKSA , @magicleap and @Google are unveiling an AR glasses prototype built as a… pic.twitter.com/05bQCt0gQn

— Magic Leap (@magicleap) October 29, 2025

While the new hardware may feel like it’s coming from left field, Magic Leap and Google actually announced a partnership last year, which they’re now renewing, given Google’s pointed interest in XR hardware and software. The details are still sparse, but probably the most telling section of Magic Leap’s announcement is this one:

By combining Magic Leap’s waveguides and optics with Google’s Raxium microLED light engine, the two companies are developing display technologies that make all-day, wearable AR more achievable. Magic Leap’s device services integrate display hardware to ensure visuals are stable, crisp, and clear.

Looks like, while Magic Leap is focusing on the waveguides (the screen inside the smart glasses), Google is focusing on software, which isn’t shocking given the launch of Android XR, Google’s AR-focused platform that’s being used on new headsets like Samsung’s Galaxy XR. What is maybe a little shocking is the fact that Magic Leap has entered the AR chat given its history of, well… failing to do that in various ways.

While Magic Leap was valued at an estimated $4.5 billion in 2016, the company actually only ever put out two real AR headsets. First, there was the Magic Leap One in 2018, which was met with pretty widespread disappointment, and despite making its way to retail via AT&T, never achieved any kind of mainstream success. The follow-up in 2022 was the $3,300 Magic Leap 2, which was even more niche, with an enterprise focus, and, to no one’s surprise, flopped equally as hard as the company’s first endeavor. Magic Leap stopped supporting its first headset altogether nearly a year ago in December 2024.

This, as you may have gleaned, is not a stellar track record, which should give you some pause on whether Magic Leap can really make things work this time around. That being said, despite Magic Leap’s failure to deliver, lots of companies with less experience and lacking the resources of Google are managing to make AR glasses work, so maybe this is the moment Magic Leap has been waiting for. I wouldn’t put money on it, but maybe, just maybe, there’s a chance.

Unsurprisingly, there’s no release date or anything like that yet, but Magic Leap plans to debut the AR glasses at FII, a conference for future tech that is currently ongoing in Saudi Arabia. What do you think? Are you taking the (magic) leap of faith this time?