Google's audio glasses will launch in Warby Parker and Gentle Monster designs. Photo / Karl Mondon, AFP
Google has unveiled the design of new smart glasses, returning to a market the tech giant tried – and failed – to crack more than a decade ago.
The glasses, expected to go on sale later this year, will challenge Meta which has built a commanding lead with its Ray-Ban smart glasses, which have sold at least seven million units.
Google’s so-called “audio glasses” will be equipped with a microphone, camera and small speaker, and will allow users to make calls, listen to music, take photos and chat with the Gemini AI assistant.
The company, which gave no firm release date or pricing details, unveiled two collections at its annual Google I/O developer conference near its Mountain View, California, headquarters: one from United States eyewear brand Warby Parker and another from South Korean designer Gentle Monster.
Samsung handled the technical development. The glasses will be compatible with both Android and Apple phones.
For Google, the launch marks a long-awaited return to a sector where it suffered one of its most high-profile failures: the Google Glass, released in 2013 with an integrated camera, which was shelved after sparking widespread concerns about privacy and surveillance.
This time, the company is betting on design to win consumers over.
However, Google’s camera-equipped model is likely to invite the same privacy questions that have followed Meta.
Google is also working on glasses with a built-in display, similar to the latest model Meta brought to market in autumn 2025. That version, previously shown as a prototype last year, has now advanced further in developer testing, Google announced, without providing additional details.
Google showed off new plans to turn its famous search bar into an AI assistant that can book restaurants, track news and contact businesses – just by asking a question.
After three years of struggling to keep up with ChatGPT, Google is racing to roll out artificial intelligence tools that build on its grip over online search.
The company’s Gemini AI app now has 900 million monthly users, twice as many as last year. Its AI-powered search feature, AI Mode, is also taking off, with a claimed one billion monthly users worldwide.
Chief executive Sundar Pichai unveiled the next step: Gemini Spark, a personal AI agent available starting next week for top-tier subscribers in the US.
Google’s search engine will also get a new upgrade for US users this northern summer: always-on AI agents that can alert you to news, book activities, and manage shopping lists.
The changes to Google search, which the company said were its biggest in 25 years, will also see a widened search box to make room for more complicated queries people use for chatbots.
“I love how search has become less about individual queries and feels more like an ongoing conversation, giving users deeper insights and connecting you with the vastness of the web,” Pichai told journalists.
Many of the features ride a wave of “agentic” AI that has gripped Silicon Valley since Austrian developer Peter Steinberger in late 2025 launched OpenClaw – a platform that lets AI book flights, manage emails and build apps from chat prompts.
OpenAI hired OpenClaw’s creator this year and the tech giants are now racing to bring agentic features to mainstream users, despite security concerns and the soaring computing costs that come with them.
To stay ahead of rivals Anthropic and OpenAI, Google has also launched the latest version of its AI model, Gemini 3.5 Flash.
Google says it runs four times faster than top competing models – including Anthropic’s Claude Opus and OpenAI’s ChatGPT 5.5 – while performing at a similar level.
The model is now the default across the Gemini app, AI Mode search and other Google services. A more powerful version, Gemini 3.5 Pro, is expected next month.
Google also announced it was teaming up with OpenAI on one front: to help stop the spread of fake or manipulated content, the ChatGPT-maker has adopted SynthID, Google’s tool for invisibly watermarking AI-generated images.
Google’s growing AI features could spell trouble for news websites and online publishers.
By keeping users inside its own apps and tools, Google makes it less likely that people will click through to outside websites – cutting into their traffic and ad revenue.
Google searches already end 58% of the time without users clicking on any website, according to a lawsuit filed against the company by Penske Media, which publishes the Hollywood Reporter and Rolling Stone.
In Europe, a major publishers’ group has complained to the European Commission, saying Google uses news content to fuel its AI summaries without paying for it.
France is the only major European country where AI Mode is still unavailable and remains at the centre of a bitter fight between Google and French publishers.
However, Google’s legal troubles are not limited to Europe.
A US court found it guilty of illegally monopolising online search in 2024, and the company could still be forced to break up parts of its business.
The US Justice Department in February appealed against a ruling that had stopped short of making Google sell its Chrome browser.
A hearing is not expected until the end of the year at the earliest, or possibly 2027.
- AFP