At IO, Google Shows It Has Its Eye On Smart Glasses, Teasing Sequel To Its Decade-Old Google Glass Headset

GoogleGOOGL

co-founder Sergey Brin says that he “made a lot of mistakes with Google Glass,” the famous $1.5K extended reality (XR) smart glasses that took the tech world by storm in 2013. But if at first you don’t succeed — try again a decade later. On Tuesday, at its annual Google IO developer conference, the Silicon Valley staple announced its first real step toward a sequel.

• On Tuesday, Google announced Android XR, a new platform designed for XR devices, and shared plans to integrate its Gemini AI tools for features like live language translation.
• The company is partnering with glasses maker Warby ParkerWRBY
  on the new product, which is seen as the ideological competition to MetaMETA
  and EssilorLuxottica’sESLOY
  Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses.

Heads up, tech people: Google IO mostly focused on AI products like AI Mode for Search, Gemini in Chrome, and refreshed Gmail smart replies. But aside from its new $250/mo AI Ultra plan, many of Google’s announcements were more glimpses of future products — such as the firm’s Project Astra experimental assistant, which could one day power its next-gen smart glasses. But before we can jump to conclusions on how Google’s various experiments and new products will contribute to the business, we’ll have to see if they survive first.