The smart glasses category is at a tipping point, and Google knows it.

2026 has been utterly dominated by negative headlines around smart glasses. Not only did a black market develop for disabling Meta glasses LEDs, a whole cottage industry formed around recording surreptitious pickup videos, putting unsuspecting women in the crosshairs. No wonder the "pervert glasses" moniker took off.

While Meta has updated its software to thwart tampering and removed harassing smart glasses videos from its platforms — and even released camera-free glasses — the stigma is still very much prevalent. Enter Google, which has the very challenging task of convincing the masses that its new Intelligent Eyewear is not just cool, but safe.

Co-developed with Samsung, the new smart glasses come in slick designs from two of the biggest names in eyewear: Warby Parker (from $395) and Gentle Monster ($449 to $489). And they have a very powerful assistant inside with Gemini. But none of that will matter if shoppers stay on the sidelines over privacy fears.

“Our goal is not to compete on who has the most private glasses,” said Juston Payne, Google’s senior director of product management for XR. “What we want to do is to set a standard and then have people rise up to that standard.”

I spoke with Payne as well as Chris Breithaupt, group product manager for AI on glasses, about how Google plans to take smart glasses from a menace to a wearable companion you actually trust.

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