What you need to know
- Google unveils two types of smart glasses, focusing on functionality and design.
- A companion app reportedly spotted, highlighting features for upcoming smart glasses.
- Privacy assured as recorded data remains exclusive to users, enhancing user trust.
Google ended 2025 with some significant announcements in its XR space, even giving us a full preview of how its smart glasses would interact with the world around us.
The tech giant is developing two types of AI glasses. The first is a lightweight, screen-free AI smart glass for all-day wear, in partnership with fashion brands like Warby Parker and Gentle Monster. The second is a display AI glass, created with hardware giants like Samsung and Magic Leap.
Google Glass Companion App in the API canary system image from r/googleglass
However, while we did see the glasses in action a couple of times, we didn't get to see much of its app that controls them. We’re getting an early peek at the software that may make this all possible.
A Reddit user seems to have spotted the companion app for Google's smart glasses. They managed to snag it by running the Android Studio preview release and setting the API to Canary preview. What's more notable is that the software seems to align with what Google mentions in their own support docs (as spotted by Android Authority).
Furthermore, the publication posted screenshots of the Canary preview that show a "Glasses" app for Google's Android XR smart glasses. It also seems to come with a package name "com.google.android.glasses.companion."
The screenshots show how users can pair their smart glasses, with a prompt stating, "Set up your Glasses now, or discover your next pair on the Google Store.” That said, the purchasing link for the glasses is currently inactive (greyed out) for obvious reasons.
But the app mentions a physical power that is placed on the right arm of these glasses, and that the LED will pulse blue or white once the glasses are ready to pair.
For the built-in camera, a settings page indicates you can import photos and videos manually, automatically, or only while charging. The smart glasses will allow you to record video clips anywhere from 30 seconds to 3 minutes.
The website was also able to take a peek under the hood of the app and pull some strings that point to potential AI features these glasses might show up with. The app's code reveals a 'Conversation detection' feature that would obviously be powered by Gemini.
It would be capable of shutting out notifications when it hears you talking. The strings also reveal that all the conversations, images, videos, and other data recorded in the glasses will remain private to the user and will not be shared with either Google or any other company, which is a relief.
The publication further mentions other strings related to display settings, including options to turn off display, brightness, and toggle an "audio only mode."
Google seems to be building an ecosystem around its new Android XR platform, and hopefully, we get to see more of these features in action closer to launch sometime this year.
