Apple’s next wave of AI wearables is on the horizon, with premium smart glasses taking center stage for production later this year and a potential launch in 2027. Multiple international outlets, including Bloomberg, report that Apple has pushed the glasses into an advanced prototype phase.
The standout feature is a dual-camera setup, a rarity in consumer eyewear. One high-resolution camera is expected to capture photos and video, while a second lens is dedicated to computer-vision tasks such as depth sensing and environmental scanning. The goal is to give Siri real-time visual context, enabling the assistant to interpret what the user is looking at as it happens.
Unlike the Vision Pro headset, these glasses are not anticipated to include a built-in display. Instead, they rely on integrated speakers, microphones, and cameras built into the frame to deliver functionality.
With this device, users could take calls, listen to music, ask Siri questions, receive navigation hints, and perform context-aware actions based on their surroundings. For instance, you could inquire about ingredients in a meal, identify landmarks for directions, translate text on the fly, or set reminders triggered by what you’re viewing.
Apple is reportedly designing the frames in-house, emphasizing premium materials and multiple sizes and finishes. The product is being positioned more like fashion eyewear rather than a bulky mixed-reality headset, signaling a shift toward style-driven wearables.
This move places Apple in direct competition with Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses, which Meta has heavily invested in to expand its wearables footprint.
In addition to the glasses, Apple is said to be developing camera-equipped AirPods—an idea that surfaced last year—along with a compact pendant-style wearable that can be clipped to clothing or worn as a necklace.
Unlike the glasses’ high-resolution camera, the AirPods and the pendant would use lower-resolution cameras intended mainly to enhance AI capabilities rather than to capture photos or video.
For AirPods, the cameras would provide Siri with improved spatial awareness, letting the assistant better understand the wearer’s surroundings in real time. This could unlock features such as object recognition, contextual queries, navigation prompts, or live language translation. Most of the heavy AI processing would still run on the iPhone.
The pendant, roughly the size of an AirTag, would perform a similar role. Worn as a necklace or clipped to clothing, it would act as an always-on visual and audio sensor, feeding environmental data back to the iPhone to power faster, more context-aware Siri interactions.
