Apple is building smart glasses designed to take on Meta’s Ray-Ban line, and according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the company is betting on four key upgrades to stand out: a redesigned camera module, a significantly smarter Siri, multiple frame styles, and seamless call and music support. The glasses won’t include a built-in display, a deliberate choice that keeps them looking like ordinary eyewear rather than a face-mounted screen.
The report, consistent with Bloomberg’s May 2025 reporting that Apple planned smart glasses for 2026 as part of a broader AI push, puts the company on a direct collision course with Meta and EssilorLuxottica. Their Ray-Ban Meta glasses have been on sale since October 2023 and just expanded into prescription territory. Apple has not publicly confirmed the project, so everything on its side of this story traces to Gurman’s sourcing rather than official announcements.
The four reported upgrades
1. A new camera design built for better photos. Apple’s prototype uses a vertically oriented oval camera lens surrounded by indicator lights, according to Bloomberg. That layout suggests the company is prioritizing image quality, particularly in low-light conditions. By comparison, the current Ray-Ban Meta glasses use a smaller, circular camera module. Apple hasn’t disclosed resolution or field-of-view specs, so a direct quality comparison isn’t possible yet, but the physical design signals that the camera is a centerpiece of the product rather than an afterthought.
2. A Siri overhaul tied to Apple’s AI ambitions. The glasses are reportedly being built around a substantially upgraded version of Siri, one that leans on Apple’s on-device AI processing. If Apple follows the approach it has taken with recent iPhone and Mac chips, that could mean voice queries, photo analysis, and contextual suggestions handled locally rather than routed through cloud servers. Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses already include Meta AI for voice-activated queries and object identification, so Apple would need its assistant to feel noticeably faster or more capable to win converts.
3. Four frame styles instead of one brand’s aesthetic. Apple is testing large rectangular, small rectangular, oval, and circular frame designs, per Bloomberg. That variety matters because one of Meta’s constraints has been its exclusive partnership with Ray-Ban, which channels every buyer through a single brand’s design language. Meta and EssilorLuxottica addressed this partly by launching Ray-Ban Meta Optics Styles on April 14, 2026, prescription-first frames priced at USD 499. But Apple offering four distinct shapes from day one could appeal to buyers who want smart glasses that don’t all look like Wayfarers. It remains unclear whether Apple will ship all four styles or narrow the lineup before production.
4. Calls and music as core features, not extras. Bloomberg’s reporting lists phone calls and music playback alongside photo and video capture as primary functions. That positions the glasses as something closer to AirPods you wear on your face: a hands-free extension of your iPhone for the tasks people already do dozens of times a day. Ray-Ban Meta glasses handle calls and music too, but Apple’s deep integration with iMessage, FaceTime, and Apple Music could make those features feel more native for anyone already inside the Apple ecosystem.
What Meta already has on the shelf
Apple is entering a category that Meta has been building for nearly three years. The Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses launched in October 2023 at $299 with live streaming, Meta AI, improved audio and microphone hardware, and a redesigned companion app. Since then, Meta and EssilorLuxottica have extended their partnership into the next decade, and the April 2026 launch of prescription Optics Styles at USD 499 means Meta now covers both sunglasses wearers and people who need corrective lenses daily.
That head start is significant. By the time Apple ships anything, Meta could be on a third or fourth hardware revision with refined AI, longer battery life, and a larger installed base of users and developers. Meta has also built its glasses around outward-facing, social behavior: streaming what you see, sharing moments to Instagram, and querying an AI assistant in real time. The product already has a defined identity in the market.
Two very different philosophies
The strategic tension between these two companies goes deeper than specs. Meta built its smart glasses as an extension of its social and advertising businesses. Live streaming and Meta AI queries feed engagement metrics and data collection that support Meta’s core revenue model. The glasses are, in a sense, another surface for Meta’s platform.
Apple has historically treated new hardware categories as ecosystem deepeners. The Apple Watch sells iCloud storage, Fitness+ subscriptions, and cellular plans. AirPods drive Apple Music adoption. If the smart glasses follow that pattern, expect Apple to emphasize privacy, on-device processing, and tight integration with services rather than social broadcasting. Early descriptions of the product suggest something more personal and less performative: capture a photo, take a call, ask Siri a question, all without pulling out your phone and without turning your face into a camera pointed at everyone around you.
That distinction could matter to buyers who are interested in smart glasses but uncomfortable with Meta’s data practices. It could also limit the product’s appeal to people who want the social features Meta offers. Neither approach is objectively better; they reflect fundamentally different ideas about what glasses with a computer inside should do.
What we still don’t know
For all the detail in Bloomberg’s reporting, several critical gaps remain. Apple has not disclosed pricing, and the company’s track record with new categories (Apple Watch started at $349, Vision Pro at $3,499) makes it difficult to guess where smart glasses will land. There is no confirmation that prescription lenses will be available at launch, a feature that Meta just added and that dramatically expands the potential buyer pool. The specific month or quarter for a 2026 release has not been pinned down, and Apple’s hardware timelines have shifted before.
There are also no published specs for the camera’s resolution, the battery’s capacity, or the weight of the frames. Comfort and battery life are the two factors that have historically made or broken wearable products, and neither has been addressed in any reporting so far. Anyone weighing a purchase decision today should note that Ray-Ban Meta glasses are the only option actually available, starting at $299, while Apple’s alternative remains a well-sourced but unconfirmed product that could still change shape, lose features, or slip past its reported 2026 window.
Why this race matters beyond glasses
Smart glasses sit at the intersection of two larger battles: the fight over AI assistants and the race to define what replaces the smartphone as a primary computing interface. Meta has said publicly that it views glasses as a major platform for the next decade. Apple, which scrapped a planned Apple Watch with a camera around the same time it greenlit the glasses project, appears to be making a similar bet on face-worn hardware as the next frontier for its AI and services strategy.
If Apple delivers a product that matches or exceeds Ray-Ban Meta on camera quality, audio, and AI while offering the privacy and ecosystem integration its customers expect, it could reshape a category Meta has had largely to itself. If the glasses arrive late, overpriced, or underpowered, Meta’s multi-year head start and EssilorLuxottica’s manufacturing scale will be very difficult to overcome. Either way, the competition should push both companies to build better products, and that benefits anyone who has been waiting for smart glasses to feel like something worth wearing every day.
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*This article was researched with the help of AI, with human editors creating the final content.
