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Google is returning to the smart glasses market this autumn, more than a decade after the failure of Google Glass. The new wearable features a camera integrated into the frames and speakers in the arms, allowing users to interact directly with Google’s ChatGPT artificial intelligence. The device is designed to provide a hands-free interface for AI-driven tasks and environment-based interactions.
Google revealed the glasses for the first time during its annual developer conference on Tuesday, offering one style designed by Warby Parker and another by Gentle Monster.
Google Glass was launched in 2013 but pulled in 2015, just seven months after its UK release, after a backlash around price and privacy.
The new smart glasses will let a wearer "stay hands free and heads up," according to Shahram Izadi, a Google executive who spoke during Tuesday's event.
The glasses will work with both Android and Apple's IOS devices, Google said.
"They are designed to give you all-day help with Gemini that's spoken into your ear privately rather than shown on a display," Izadi added.
While the company is working on a version of the glasses that will have an in-lens display capable of showing a wearer text and information, instead of being audio-only, those glasses are not set to be released yet.
Izadi said during Tuesday's event in Mountain View, California that more information about the in-lens glasses will come out later this year.
He added that developers are already working on applications for the display glasses.
The core features of Google's intelligent eyewear appear similar to those available in Meta's offering of AI or smart glasses, which have a small camera and speakers for verbal and audio communication with Meta AI.
Meta's Ray-Bans have already sold seven million pairs, according to the company.
