Mark Zuckerberg says a future without smart glasses is ‘hard to imagine’

Mark Zuckerberg talked about his ambitions for Meta’s AI-powered smart glasses business during Meta’s Q4 2025 earnings call on Wednesday.

After shifting its investment in Reality Labs away from the Metaverse, Meta is doubling its production of wearable AI devices, as well as its own AI models.

“Billions of people wear glasses or contact lenses to correct vision,” Zuckerberg said. “I think we’re in a similar moment to when smartphones arrived, and obviously it was only a matter of time until all these foldable phones became smartphones.” “It’s hard to imagine a world in a few years where most of the glasses people wear are not AI glasses.”

He added that sales of Meta glasses have tripled over the past year, and he believes they are “one of the fastest growing consumer electronics devices in history.”

Take Zuckerberg’s point of view with a grain of salt. After all, he also thought we’d go to work and have a good time with our friends in the metaverse — legs optional — but that didn’t work out.

But based on how the biggest players in tech are allocating their money and efforts, AI glasses appear poised for a big moment, even if it’s not on a smartphone scale.

Google is expected to launch a line of smart glasses this year, following a $150 million deal with Warby Parker. Apple is also reportedly planning to unveil smart glasses in the next year or two, and move some employees to that project instead of working on the lighter Vision Pro, according to Bloomberg. Meanwhile, Snap announced on Tuesday that it will spin off its augmented reality glasses, Specs, into a new subsidiary to allow for “greater operational focus and alignment.”

Even OpenAI, a company that has yet to venture into hardware, is pursuing wearable AI devices, though it seems more focused on something like an AI pin or earbuds, rather than glasses. Apple is also rumored to be working on an AirTag-sized AI device — though these efforts will hopefully be better than the Humane AI pin.

Right now, Meta is leading the way in pushing smart glasses to market, with several different models already on sale. This includes Oakley’s smart glasses that are designed to be worn while exercising, which is the most promising use case we’ve personally seen for these devices so far.