Smart Glasses Are Splitting in Two

Smart Glasses Are Splitting in Two

— Here’s What That Means If You’re Shopping For a Pair

Thinking about a pair of smart glasses? It’s a good time to pause and ask yourself one question first: do you actually want a camera in them?

That’s not a rhetorical question anymore — it’s the single biggest fork in the market right now. Camera-equipped smart glasses let you snap photos and video hands-free, which is genuinely handy for things like a kid’s soccer match or hiking with your hands full. But that same feature has caused a real backlash. The glasses let wearers discreetly record people nearby with only a small LED light as any indicator, and that made it easy to film others without their knowledge — misuse that spread widely enough to draw mainstream attention. A US TikToker even faced backlash for using smart glasses to film women in public without consent, which is the kind of story that sticks.

Some places have already drawn a hard line. The UK now bans smart glasses in courtrooms nationwide, and the pub chain Wetherspoons has banned recording with them altogether, with regulars saying they just don’t want to be filmed while having a quiet drink. There’s even a new app called Nearby Glasses that tries to detect if someone near you is wearing camera-equipped smart glasses — a sign of how normal that suspicion has become.

So manufacturers are giving you a choice

Rather than picking a side, most of the big brands are now offering both. Meta’s newest model, the Ray-Ban Meta Audio, drops the camera entirely — starting at $349, in USA, it still has microphones for voice assistant, music and calls, just no lens. If you liked the idea of smart glasses but the camera made you (or people around you) uncomfortable, this is squarely aimed at you. Meanwhile, the camera-equipped Ray-Ban Meta Gen 3 is still very much for sale, from $449, with a sharper 12MP camera for people who want the photo and video features and are comfortable with the tradeoffs.

Not every brand is going camera-free, either — Samsung and Google’s upcoming smart glasses are expected to include a camera in every version, so “no camera available” won’t be universal.

What to actually think about before you buy

• Be honest about why you want them. If it’s mainly for navigation, translation, calls, or an AI assistant in your ear, a camera-free pair will likely do everything you need — and it’ll probably be lighter, slimmer, and cheaper.
• If you do want the camera, get comfortable with where and when it’s appropriate to wear them — some venues (and eventually workplaces) are starting to restrict them outright.
• Check the recording indicator. Reputable models have had real problems with indicator lights being bypassed or ignored; ask your optician or retailer what protections a specific model has.
• Your optician can help. Frame shape, weight, and temple thickness differ noticeably between camera and camera-free models — worth trying both before deciding.

The bottom line: there’s no longer one “smart glasses” category to choose from — there are two. Knowing which one you actually want makes the whole shopping trip a lot simpler.