Apple smart glasses may see an unusual launch strategy — here's when they could arrive

Apple smart glasses are now back in focus, as the Cupertino tech giant is reportedly scrapping plans for its rumored Vision Air headset in favor of its first pair of smart specs that will rival the Ray Ban Meta AI glasses. In fact, we may see them as soon as next year

As claimed by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, the long-rumored Apple Glasses are now taking priority as the company's next major head-mounted device release, rather than its lighter mixed-reality headset. Interestingly, the report claims that Apple is expected to announce its new smart glasses in 2026 — but their official launch won't be until later.

According to sources speaking with Gurman, the Apple smart glasses are set to release in 2027, meaning we'll see a two-stage release plan similar to the Apple Vision Pro. The headset was initially revealed during WWDC in June 2023, but was then launched in February 2024.

While Apple usually launches its products soon after they are unveiled, as with the recent iPhone 17 lineup, that's not always the case with brand-new products. The Cupertino tech company instead staggers its announcement and release schedule. This seems to be the case with its rumored upcoming Apple smart glasses.

This falls in line with previous reports that Apple wanted to accelerate plans to deliver Apple's first pair of smart glasses, seeing as the market is growing, and Meta unveiled its Meta Ray-Ban Display specs that combine AI and AR tech.

When will we see Apple smart glasses?

While there's no word on when in 2026 the Apple smart glasses will be announced, if they will appear at all, there's reason to believe we may get a peek at them during WWDC 2026.

Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference focuses on software announcements rather than hardware, but it still revealed its Vision Pro headset back in 2023 — in part to talk about Apple's visionOS. With this in mind, it's expected that Apple Glasses will come with all-new software to power the smart specs.

Interestingly, Apple is also set to release a much-needed overhaul to Siri next spring, and with the smart glasses tipped to make AI its focus, this should give users full control to take pictures, record video, make phone calls and more via voice commands, it makes sense that the company will set the stage to debut its first smart glasses during its annual conference in June next year.

Of course, this is just speculation, as there's no telling when we may see these Apple Glasses arrive. At the very least, previous reports from analyst Ming-Chi Kuo stated that Apple's next head-mounted devices are planned to arrive in 2027. In any case, it will be a while longer until Apple's smart glasses make their debut.

While the lighter Vision Air headset may no longer be in development, we're still expecting to see the next Apple Vision Pro with an M5 chip soon, with an FCC leak pointing to a release as soon as October.

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