Warby Parker is entering the smart glasses market in partnership with Google and Samsung, betting that demand for the artificial intelligence wearables will grow fast in the coming years. Warby Parker AI glasses will connect to Google’s Gemini assistant for directions, language translation and other tasks, and shoppers can start placing pre-orders from Thursday. The move puts the New York eyewear brand into a market now led by Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses.
The Warby Parker AI glasses are broadly similar to the Meta smart glasses sold by Ray-Ban and Oakley maker EssilorLuxottica. Most models in the category embed small cameras that let wearers record their surroundings without taking out a phone, and that design has drawn regulatory scrutiny from Norway to Australia. Warby Parker says the difference is a privacy framework built into its glasses from the outset.
Warby Parker AI glasses privacy protections
Warby Parker co-chief executive Neil Blumenthal told Reuters that the Warby Parker AI glasses carry a privacy framework built in from the outset. Alphabet’s Google will not use visuals captured with the glasses to train its AI. The glasses will bar facial recognition of bystanders. A small white notification light on the front of the glasses turns on automatically when a user starts recording video.
Google says it will embed guardrails into the devices to prevent tampering with the recording indicator light. The company says it will redact people’s faces from video footage before it is sent to Gemini, and it will ban targeted advertising on the glasses. Meta’s AI glasses also carry a camera notification light on the front, a Meta spokesperson said, adding that input from safety experts helped shape the privacy settings on its glasses.
Warby Parker AI glasses and the market
Ray-Ban’s Meta glasses still dominate the category, with 81.3 percent of AI glasses shipments in the first half of 2026, according to tech research group Omdia. Global AI glasses shipments more than doubled in the first half of 2026 from a year ago, though growth has slowed since the second half of last year, the Omdia data shows. Brands from Warby Parker to luxury group Kering, which is poised to release glasses also in partnership with Google, are looking to gain a foothold.
Investors have welcomed the plan. Optimism that Warby Parker AI glasses will prove a major growth engine has helped the company’s shares rally by nearly 40 percent this year, against a 10 percent gain in the S and P 500. The company expects an addition of several percentage points to fourth-quarter revenue growth from the new wearable technology, executives said on an earnings call earlier this month. Analysts at TD Cowen wrote last week that smart glasses are poised to be an “increasingly important driver” of Warby Parker’s growth outlook, while the core optical backdrop remains soft.
Warby Parker AI glasses face privacy pushback
Privacy concerns could still slow sales of the Warby Parker AI glasses. One of Britain’s biggest pub chains has restricted the use of the frames, Norway’s government is planning a temporary ban on the use of AI glasses in certain locations, and Australia is considering barring camera-equipped smart glasses in government workplaces. Juston Payne, who leads extended reality products at Google, acknowledged that public skepticism could be a risk to growth.
“This is an area where, understandably, trust was lost,” Payne told Reuters at a demo for the Warby Parker AI glasses in New York. “We are going to change this conversation,” he said. “We are trying to raise the bar.” It remains to be seen whether those measures will ease concern about widespread surveillance if the glasses become common.
Calli Schroeder, who leads the AI and human rights program at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, welcomed the pledge that video footage will not be fed into AI systems for training. She added a caution: “a stranger has footage of my kid on their phone. That’s concerning no matter how you phrase it.”
Blumenthal put the bet in plain terms: “As long as the tools provide utility to customers, then we’ll be successful.” Pre-orders for the Warby Parker AI glasses open on Thursday.