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Google has been teasing its Android XR-powered smart glasses for the past year and a half—ever since it first announced the new mixed reality platform in December of 2024. Now, we're finally starting to see more polished versions of the hardware, several of which will actually go on sale this fall.

At Google I/O, the company gave us a first look at the designs of smart glasses coming from established eyewear brands Warby Parker and Gentle Monster. These smart glasses are codeveloped by Samsung and Google, while the eyeglass companies handle the design of the frames.

Xreal also took the stage at I/O to showcase its upcoming Project Aura, which is essentially a miniaturized glasses version of bulky headsets like the Apple Vision Pro and Samsung's Galaxy XR—powering a full Android app interface with hand gestures for interaction.

Audio-only smart glasses from Warby Parker and Gentle Monster will launch later this year. More complex versions with displays built into the lenses will arrive soon after. Xreal's Project Aura will also come this fall.

I got a chance to wear some early versions of these frames and try out a few features in a controlled demo experience.

Smarter Glasses

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu/WIRED

I wasn't able to see the final polished designs from Warby Parker and Gentle Monster. Instead, my demos were on unfinished reference glasses from Samsung and Google. The most remarkable thing about them is how light they are. Google says much of the work it and Samsung have done was to miniaturize the technology to save weight. The arms of the glasses are still a little chunky, though.

Audio quality was equally impressive. As soon as I asked Gemini to play some Radiohead, the audio surrounded my head and sounded dynamic, though I was in a quiet room. I asked someone else to try them so I could see if I could hear it at 50 percent volume while sitting across from them. I could barely hear the music.

The audio-only glasses will be the first to arrive later this year. And yes, all of these upcoming smart glasses—even the audio-only ones—have cameras. That's how the Gemini assistant can see what you're seeing to provide helpful, contextual answers and services. The versions with more advanced optics will provide a richer experience. For example, if someone talks to you in a different language, the Gemini assistant inside all of the glasses can translate their voice and even make it sound like the person speaking, but the display versions of the glasses will offer accompanying text to read as well.

Courtesy of Google

The versions with a display built into the lenses should be especially helpful with things like turn-by-turn navigation, since you'll be able to see exactly where to turn left on the display as you walk. Google says the glasses don't have GPS and rely on your phone's GPS, but the cameras on the glasses utilize Google's Visual Positioning System to identify surroundings and ensure your blue dot is in the right spot—something you can currently do in the Google Maps app to calibrate your compass.

I tapped and held on the right arm of the glasses, and this triggered Gemini Live. That's the default experience, allowing you to have a conversational back and forth with Google's assistant.

Gemini did a good job of only listening to my voice in these encounters and ignoring people who were speaking to me. I was able to ask it what the board game next to me was—it correctly identified it as Chinese checkers—and then asked if I wanted to learn how to play. I asked it to just save me those instructions in a Google Keep note, and voilà, it generated that advice in a Keep note within seconds.

Photograph and composite by Julian Chokkattu/WIRED

Next, I was able to ask Gemini to take a picture and then alter the photo post-capture. I first asked it to remove a plant in the photo, then I asked it to change the room's decor to a medieval hall. It did those things remarkably well.

You'll get the original image on your phone and a preview on Wear OS smartwatches if you're wearing one (or a preview on the display-laden glasses), and the doctored version will arrive within 45 seconds once Google's Nano Banana platform does its thing.

I was able to see a few generative widgets and scroll through them on these glasses—that's a big theme Google is introducing in Android 17 and other platforms—so you can have glanceable information on your glasses for whatever you want. I wasn't able to see much else of the user interface, though.

Project Aura

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu/WIRED

A different kind of glasses experience, Project Aura is more akin to mixed-reality headsets like Apple's Vision Pro and Samsung's Galaxy XR. That's remarkable in its own right. Yes, you're probably not going to walk

Hands-On With All of Google’s New Upcoming Android XR Smart Glasses | WIRED