Google is shipping smart glasses again. Intelligent Eyewear, built on Android XR and compatible with both Android and iOS, is available for pre-order today through Gentle Monster and Warby Parker, with units shipping December 10. Entry price is $395.
This is Google's second attempt at the category after Glass. The Warby Parker and Gentle Monster partnerships signal a deliberate pivot toward fashion-first positioning, not developer hardware. The audio glasses form factor puts it directly against Meta Ray-Bans in a market that is no longer experimental.
The iOS compatibility is the detail worth reading around. Google building Android XR hardware that works with Apple's ecosystem is not a default decision. The full piece will tell you what that actually means for features, and how much of the Android XR stack survives the crossover.
[READ ORIGINAL →]