Apple may be getting closer to entering the smart glasses market. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that the company is aiming to preview its first Apple smart glasses at WWDC next June, with a broader release expected before the close of 2027. One reason for the slower rollout appears to be Apple’s need to carefully shape both the product’s privacy safeguards and the public message around them. Wearable camera glasses have already drawn scrutiny, especially Meta’s models, because they can discreetly take photos and record video. As Gurman notes:
Apple has spent more than 10 years positioning privacy as a core part of its brand identity. Moving into a product category closely associated with Meta could put that image at risk, even if Apple designs its glasses in a very different way.
To avoid the biggest privacy concerns, Apple is expected to lean heavily on on-device processing and steer clear of divisive tools such as facial recognition or a persistent recording system like Meta’s “super sensing” feature. Gurman also suggests Apple is unlikely to use customer-captured audio or video from the glasses to train its artificial intelligence models.
The company is reportedly developing additional privacy protections across both hardware and software. Apple could even decide to offer a version of the smart glasses with no camera at all, or one where the camera is limited strictly to environmental sensing and cannot take photos or record video. That approach would mirror rumors surrounding Apple’s upcoming AI-powered AirPods, which may use camera-like sensors without functioning as traditional recording devices.
