We’re Already Barrelling Toward a Smart Glasses Bubble

Things tend to move fast in the world of gadgets—blink your eyes and you’re liable to go from “What’s an iPhone?” to seeing one in the hands of everyone you’ve ever known. That rapid acceleration can be hard to identify in the moment, but when you’ve written about gadgets as extensively as I have, you start to see the early signs, and I’m here to tell you that, if you’re a fan of smart glasses, I suggest you buckle up now.

If smart glasses are just cropping up on your radar, I don’t blame you. While the form factor has been creeping up for years now, Meta’s entry into the equation with a pair of smart glasses that actually have a display has made quite a splash, especially after making the Meta Ray-Ban Display the highlight of its annual Connect conference. Not only that, but Meta now has its name attached to not one, but five pairs currently being sold right now—yes, five. And the thing is, it’s not just about Meta, nor is it just about Samsung and Apple, both of which are most likely in varying stages of releasing their own pairs of smart glasses.

Beneath all of those massive names, there are actually tons of companies that already have their own smart glasses for sale (with screens and without) that are even on multiple generations now. Companies like Rayneo, Viture, Even Realities, Solos, Brilliant Labs, Inmo, Rokid… Should I keep going? You see where I’m going with this—things are getting crowded all of a sudden, which in a lot of ways is great. The more companies making smart glasses, the more options you’ll have as consumers, and theoretically, the more innovation you’ll have in the category.

I say “theoretically” here because, despite all of that attention, smart glasses haven’t been an easy nut to crack. While initial startups have offered some surprisingly compelling use cases (navigation and open-ear audio, to name a couple of my favorites), the category still has a bit of an Apple Watch issue, which is to say, compelling hardware without the Holy Grail killer feature that makes people rush out in droves to buy their own pair.

And whether companies will be able to stick around long enough to figure those issues out fully is a whole different issue. Without resources to burn like Google, Apple, Samsung, or Amazon, which also recently dipped its toes into the smart glasses world with a pair of delivery driver-focused glasses, hanging in won’t be an easy task. And when Google, Samsung, Apple, and friends do arrive on the scene… What then?

As surprisingly functional as smart glasses made by startups are right now, they don’t exactly have the robust ecosystem of mobile titans like Apple and Google, which own the platforms that smart glasses have to connect to. Why does that matter? Well, the more interconnectivity, the easier and more useful smart glasses become; suddenly, critical features like messaging, calling, and taking pictures feel seamless. Call me a cynic, but I doubt that third-party smart glasses will ever enjoy the same level of integration as a pair of Apple-made smart glasses connecting to an iPhone.

I’m leaving room to be wrong here, too. Maybe a startup will figure out something game-changing and beat Samsung or Apple to the punch, though the clock is ticking for that to happen, since Samsung and Google have already gone as far as to preview a prototype of smart glasses. Or maybe, those tech titans pushing towards smart glasses just don’t have the chops to make things work, and a startup with some groundbreaking waveguides, or an awe-inspiring input system, will swoop in and steal the thunder. But if I’m being honest, that feels less likely to me, which is a bummer—to think that all this excitement could actually just be one big bubble.