Google-powered smart glasses with Gemini, from Warby Parker and Gentle Monster, are launching this fall to take on Ray-Ban Meta.
Gentle Monster and Warby Parker are rising competitors to EssilorLuxottica, Meta's partner, which owns the Ray-Ban and Oakley brands, is the largest eyewear company in the world by far, and has almost 4000 stores in the US alone. While far smaller in scale, they offer similar stylish designs. The US-based Warby Parker has over 270 physical stores in North America, while glasses from the South Korean Gentle Monster brand have become popular with younger people in the US and are worn by celebrities like Beyoncé, Rihanna, Kendrick Lamar, and Billie Eilish.
Google first announced that it was working with the two companies on smart glasses to compete with Ray-Ban Meta back at I/O 2025, though at the time didn't share a specific release timeline or hardware details.
At I/O 2026, Google revealed that the first Warby Parker and Gentle Monster smart glasses powered by its technology will arrive "later this fall", and confirmed that these first devices will not feature a display, despite the company's repeated 2025 demos focusing on the in-lens display of its prototypes.
The Warby Parker device resembles the Ray-Ban Meta Headliner style, and could easily be mistaken for it, while the Gentle Monster option looks nothing like anything Meta and EssilorLuxottica have put out so far, instead bringing Gentle Monster's iconic design language to smart glasses.
Google previously said it will also work with Kering Eyewear, another one of EssilorLuxottica's competitors, in the future.
The upcoming Warby Parker and Gentle Monster smart glasses.
As with Ray-Ban Meta, the Warby Parker and Gentle Monster glasses have cameras, speakers, and microphones, and communicate with your phone. But Google's two major advantages over Ray-Ban Meta are Gemini and Android.
While Meta's Muse Spark model has closed the intelligence gap, Gemini 3.5 Flash more deeply integrates into existing services like Google Maps for turn-by-turn audio directions and Nano Banana to edit the images you capture.
When connected to your Android phone, Gemini can also launch and take agentic action in apps like DoorDash and Uber, letting you order food or a ride with a command to Gemini, without needing to manually interact with your phone.
This capability stood out as a highlight of Google's live demo, wherein Google's Android XR lead Shahram Izadi and Android XR PM Nishtha Bhatia once again took the stage to show off what smart glasses can do, including asking Gemini to provide turn-by-turn directions and to order "my usual order at that coffee shop", prompting the AI system to take control of her phone, launch DoorDash, and operate it to order her coffee. Remarkable.
Unlike all the past demos from the duo, this time the glasses lacked an in-lens display. But the demo showed how this can be partially made up for through integration with Wear OS, Google's smart watch platform. After taking a photo using the camera glasses, and asking Gemini to edit it, Bhatia was able to preview the captured image (albeit a very tiny preview) on the Pixel Watch on her wrist.
Google's live demo of the Warby Parker & Gentle Monster smart glasses.
Google hasn't yet said what kind of pricing to expect, nor any real specifications of the hardware. While the renders seem to show two cameras on the front, Google refused to confirm whether there are one or two cameras present, or any other specific technical details.
With Meta Connect 2026 set for September 23, Google could be facing an uphill battle to enter the market. Meta and EssilorLuxottica sold 7 million units in 2025 alone, and the Ray-Ban brand has become synonymous with the category. It's still very early days, though, of course, and the advantages of Gemini and deep Android integration could be a serious threat to Meta's position later this year.
I'm actively writing on UploadVR again, and this article is one in a series of "catch-up" pieces where I report on some of the interesting things that have been happening in the industry in recent months. And yes, VR Download is coming back soon!
