Mark Zuckerberg says a future without smart glasses is ‘hard to imagine’

Mark Zuckerberg spoke astir his ambitions for Meta’s AI astute glasses concern during Meta’s Q4 2025 earnings telephone connected Wednesday.

After pivoting its Reality Labs investments away from the metaverse, Meta is doubling down connected its accumulation of AI wearables, arsenic good arsenic its ain AI models.

“Billions of radical deterioration glasses oregon contacts for imaginativeness correction. And I deliberation that we’re astatine a infinitesimal akin to erstwhile smartphones arrived, and it was intelligibly lone a substance of clip until each those flip phones became smartphones,” Zuckerberg said. “It’s hard to ideate a satellite successful respective years wherever astir glasses that radical deterioration aren’t AI glasses.”

He added that income of Meta’s glasses tripled wrong the past year, and helium believes that they’re “some of the fastest increasing user electronics successful history.”

Take Zuckerberg’s outlook with a atom of salt. After all, helium besides thought that we would spell to enactment and bent retired with our friends successful the metaverse — legs optional — and that didn’t enactment out.

But based connected however tech’s biggest players are allocating their wealth and effort, it does look similar AI glasses are poised for a large moment, adjacent if it’s not connected the standard of the smartphone.

Google is expected to launch a enactment of astute glasses this year, pursuing a $150 cardinal deal with Warby Parker. Apple is besides reportedly readying to unveil smart glasses successful the adjacent twelvemonth oregon two, moving immoderate unit to that task alternatively of moving connected a lighter Vision Pro, according to Bloomberg. Meanwhile, Snap announced Tuesday that it would rotation its AR glasses, Specs, into a caller subsidiary to let for “greater operational absorption and allignment.”

Even OpenAI, a institution that has not yet ventured into hardware, is pursuing AI wearables, though it seems much focused connected thing similar an AI pin oregon earbuds, alternatively than glasses. Apple is besides rumored to beryllium moving connected an AirTag-sized AI instrumentality — though hopefully those efforts crook retired amended than the Humane AI pin.

For now, Meta is leading the way successful pushing astute glasses to market, with respective antithetic models already connected sale. That includes Oakley astute glasses designed to beryllium worn portion exercising, which is the most promising usage case we’ve personally seen for these devices frankincense far.