Technology companies have begun expanding AI beyond the phone screen through glasses, earbuds and extended-reality devices that allow users to ask questions, get directions, translate conversations and take photos without taking out their phones.
Smart glasses integrate assistants with cameras and microphones
The approach centres on integrating smart assistants with cameras, microphones and sensors capable of following users’ commands and understanding what is happening around them. Smart glasses are among the leading candidates to become a new gateway for interacting with AI, combining a familiar design with the ability to take photos, record sound and operate digital assistants hands-free.
Instead of opening an app on a phone and typing a question, users can speak to their glasses and hear the answer while walking, working or carrying out another task. Last September, Meta announced an expansion of its smart-glasses ecosystem and unveiled Ray-Ban Meta Audio glasses, which focus on sound and interaction with a smart assistant.
It also announced the integration of its personal agent, Muse, into its AI glasses, saying the agent could help users carry out tasks and manage their daily goals without having to hold their phones.
The third generation of Ray-Ban Meta glasses includes a 12-megapixel camera capable of recording 3K video, along with six microphones designed to improve voice-command capture and call quality. Meta also equipped the glasses with a light indicator that alerts people nearby when photos are being taken or video is being recorded.
Google expands Android XR devices
Google is also expanding this category through Android XR glasses, which it says will come in two forms. The first is audio glasses that provide assistance through the ear, while the second includes a display showing information in front of the user’s eye. Through the Gemini assistant, users can get directions, send messages, take photos and carry out other tasks without returning to their phones.
Not all these devices rely on screens. Earbuds and audio glasses offer a model based on speaking and listening rather than typing and looking. This allows users to ask a question while moving or working and receive the answer directly through the earpiece, without interrupting what they are doing or shifting their attention to a separate screen.
In this model, voice commands become the main interface for accessing AI: microphones capture the question or request, while the speakers relay the answer to the user’s ear. This gives screenless glasses a role beyond playing audio, making them a relatively constant means of communicating with a smart assistant during daily activities.
Devices understand the user’s surroundings
But the shift is not limited to moving a voice assistant from a phone to another device; it also enables the assistant to understand the user’s surrounding context. On devices that support these functions, a camera can identify a product on a shop shelf and answer the user’s questions about it, while microphones can capture a conversation and process it for translation or assistance.
Meta says Muse will work through its glasses in a way that allows users to ask directly about objects they see in front of them, such as a product on a shelf or a written menu, without first having to describe the object to the assistant. Android XR, for its part, combines Gemini’s capabilities with awareness of the surrounding environment to provide assistance while using glasses or extended-reality earbuds, according to Google.
The same approach extends to other ecosystems. Apple has expanded Apple Intelligence so that it is no longer confined to iPhones. The devices on which the system operates include iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, AirPods and Apple Vision Pro, making AI a shared layer distributed across several of the company’s devices rather than tied to a single product.
With this expansion, the phone is gradually shifting from the only gateway to AI services to one of several access points. Users can choose to interact with an assistant through glasses, earbuds or a watch worn on the wrist, depending on the task, their location and the most suitable way to obtain information or carry out a request.
Privacy faces the test of continuous recording
But the constant presence of smart assistants places privacy at the heart of these products’ design. A camera used to help the device owner understand what they are seeing can also capture other people, while microphones intended to respond to commands can record sounds from the surrounding environment. As a result, notification systems, recording management and data controls have become essential elements in developing devices worn close to the body.
Meta says the light indicator on its glasses shows people nearby that the camera is recording. IDC, meanwhile, says concerns about privacy and the possibility of continuous recording have become influential issues in the smart-glasses market, as devices with cameras and microphones become more widespread and are used for long periods during the day.
Apple says Apple Intelligence was designed with a focus on privacy, explaining that some AI processes are carried out on the device itself, while more complex tasks rely on what it calls Private Cloud Compute. This reflects companies’ efforts to distribute processing between devices and cloud services as the functions performed by smart assistants expand.
The move of AI to glasses, earbuds and extended-reality devices is changing how people interact with technology, from services accessed through a screen when needed to an assistant that can be reached through sound, sight and movement.
The success of this shift depends on companies’ ability to provide useful, fast functions while addressing privacy concerns and preventing everyday use from becoming a continuous process of data collection.
