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

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

After pivoting the investment of Reality Labs away from the metaverseMeta has doubled down on the production of AI wearables, as well as its own AI models.

“Billions of people wear glasses or contacts to correct their vision. And I think that we are in the same moment as when the Smartphone came, and it is clear that it is only a matter of time until all phones flip into Smartphones,” said Zuckerberg. “It’s hard to imagine a world in years where most of the glasses people wear aren’t AI glasses.”

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

Take Zuckerberg’s outlook with a grain of salt. After all, they also thought we were going to work and hang out with friends in the metaverse – optional legs – and that can’t get out.

But based on how the biggest players in technology allocate money and effort, it seems like AI glasses are poised for a big moment, even if it is not in the size of a smartphone.

Google is expected to start line of smart glasses this year, below a $150 million deal with Warby Parker. Apple is also reportedly planning to open it smart glasses in the next year or two, moving some staff to the project instead of working on the lighter Vision Pro, according to Bloomberg. Meanwhile, Snap announced Tuesday that it will roll out AR glasses, Specificationsinto a new subsidiary to allow for “greater operational focus and alignment.”

Even OpenAI, a company that hasn’t been working on hardware yet, is working on AI wearables, though it seems to be focusing more on things like AI pin or earbudsinstead of glasses. Apple is also rumored to be working on an AI device the size of the AirTag — though hopefully that effort is better than that Pin human AI.

Now, Meta lead the way in the push of smart glasses to the market, with several different models already on sale. These include Oakley smart glasses designed for use during sports, ie the most promising use case we ourselves have seen the device so far.