Google’s screenless Gemini glasses, from $395, arrive Dec. 10 to take on Meta

Mountain View’s Google opened preorders Nov. 12 for its first consumer glasses with its Gemini AI assistant built in, the company said in its announcement.  The pitch is simple:  get answers, directions, translations and messages without pulling out a phone.  Warby Parker’s three styles start at $395 and Gentle Monster’s six start at $449, with prescription lenses available.  Both go on sale online and in stores Dec. 10 in the United States and South Korea.

Wearers say “Hey Gemini” or tap the frame, and Gemini uses the glasses’ camera and microphones to answer through small open-ear speakers.  The lenses have no screen; Google calls these “audio glasses” and says glasses with a display will come later, without giving a date.  The frames weigh about 41 grams, and Google says the battery lasts up to nine hours, with a case that recharges them up to seven times.  They connect by Bluetooth to Pixel 7 or newer phones, recent Samsung Galaxy phones or an iPhone 13 Pro or newer, and Samsung helped design them.

What people can use them for

Google’s launch materials list everyday uses beyond asking about a mural or an event poster:

• Look and ask:  check whether wild berries on a hike are safe for a dog, learn how often to water a new houseplant or find out what an appliance error code means, according to Google’s product site.
• Around town:  ask a business’s hours, hear reviews of a restaurant you pass or decode a confusing parking sign.
• Shopping and errands:  compare prices on an item in a store window, or add what you are looking at to a grocery list.
• Schedule:  look at a concert poster to check whether you are free, set a reminder to pick up a birthday cake or get a nudge to leave for a flight.
• Getting around:  hear turn-by-turn Google Maps walking directions, or ask for a nearby café.
• Travel:  hear real-time speech translation in more than 70 languages, or have a menu, street sign or transit map translated.
• Messages and calls:  hear texts read aloud, reply by voice or get a summary of a long group chat.
• Photos:  take pictures and up to 3K video with a 12-megapixel camera.
• Guided Vision:  for people who are blind or have low vision, Gemini can read mail and nutrition labels aloud, find keys or describe a room, including empty seats and doorways.  Users can also connect to a trained human interpreter through Aira.  At launch both work only with Android phones, and Google says Guided Vision is not a medical or mobility aid.

Google’s fine print tells users to check Gemini’s answers, which can be wrong.

How they differ from Google Glass

Google has tried glasses before.  Glass put a small transparent display above the right eye, and its last version, Glass Enterprise Edition 2 from 2019, was aimed at workers who needed checklists and instructions on factory floors and in warehouses, Google’s announcement and help pages show.  Businesses bought it through Google’s sales team and partners.  Google stopped selling it March 15, 2023, and ended support that September.

The new glasses reverse that:  no display, sold to consumers in fashion frames with prescription lenses, and built around a talking assistant tied to Google Maps, Calendar and Translate rather than custom business software.

The problems Meta’s glasses face

Meta says its Ray-Ban Meta glasses are the world’s best-selling AI glasses, with millions sold.  Meta’s own statements also describe problems:

• Recording privacy:  Meta said in July that, after it began blocking the camera when the recording light is covered, some people made “sophisticated efforts” to modify or destroy the light.  Meta said it is updating the glasses to disable the camera when it detects tampering and is taking legal action against businesses selling tampering services.
• Supply:  In January, Meta paused plans to sell its $799 Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses in Britain, France, Italy and Canada, citing “extremely limited inventory” and U.S. waitlists stretching well into 2026.  Sales there began this fall.
• Battery:  Meta says its second-generation Ray-Ban glasses last up to eight hours, almost twice as long as the first generation.

How Google’s glasses compare

• Price:  Google’s start at $395, against $379 for Ray-Ban Meta Gen 2 and $799 for Meta’s Display model.
• Screen:  Google’s glasses have no display.  Meta’s Display model shows messages and alerts inside the lens and is controlled by a wristband.
• Battery:  Google lists up to nine hours, Meta up to eight hours for Gen 2; each company measures differently.
• Privacy:  Both turn off the camera if the recording light is blocked.  Google adds that the glasses blur bystanders’ faces before Gemini analyzes an image, that camera views from Gemini aren’t saved in Gemini history or used to train AI or target ads, and that its app store bars glasses apps that identify faces in real time.  Users must agree not to record people without permission, and Google may disable the glasses of those who break that rule.
• Availability:  Meta sells Ray-Ban Meta glasses in many more countries, while Google’s work only with U.S. and South Korean Google accounts held by adults.

Each pair of Google’s glasses also has an off switch, so they can be worn as ordinary glasses.

Source:  Google announcement, Nov. 12; Google privacy post; glasses.google; Google I/O 2026 post; Glass Enterprise help; Meta newsroom, July; Meta, Jan. 6; Meta, Sept. 23; Meta Gen 2 post.