Last week, I tested Google's Android XR prototypes, the Gemini-powered foundation for Samsung's 2026 AI glasses. And while Google director Juston Payne said these AI glasses will "help bring this category into existence," Meta brought smart glasses and XR into the mainstream first. So it's fair to speculate how Google and Samsung will crack Meta's AI glasses stranglehold.

We don't know how Warby Parker and Gentle Monster will design these glasses, nor do we have camera or battery specs yet. But the Android XR UI and apps felt polished and consumer-ready in my hour-long demo. I already know what it'll be like to use these glasses in daily life.

As a result, I expect the display-free Samsung glasses and Ray-Ban Meta glasses to have remarkably similar software; the mono-HUD glasses will, li

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