Apple smart glasses are getting closer to becoming a reality, per report

Michael Burkhardt | Apr 27 2025 - 5:27 am PT

According to the latest edition of Mark Gurman’s Power On newsletter, Apple is continuing to develop its own pair of smart glasses. The product, now codenamed N50, is going to infuse some of the companies AI developments into a pair of glasses that hopefully won’t break the bank.

It’s no secret that Apple’s true end goal is to develop industry-leading augmented reality glasses. However, we’re at least a few years from that being feasible for a consumer product.

In the meanwhile, Apple wants to create its own pair of smart glasses, similar to Meta’s glasses collaboration with Ray-Ban. Meta Ray-Bans have become fairly popular, and infuse all sorts of tech (not displays, however) into a not-too-bulky pair of glasses: including cameras, microphones, an AI assistant, and speakers for listening to audio.

Apple wants to follow a very similar approach, per Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman:

This device isn’t close to being ready yet, but the idea is to turn glasses into an Apple Intelligence device. The product will analyze the surrounding environment and feed information to the wearer, though it will stop well short of true augmented reality.

In the past, Gurman has mentioned that Apple may not want to allow the glasses to take photos due to privacy concerns, though that’s still undecided.

Gurman also once again mentioned that Apple is continuing to work on AirPods with cameras, which’ll also push its Visual Intelligence tech into new hardware.

Top comment by Steve Stutz

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Due to slight nearsightedness I need to wear Glasses. Most of the time I opt for Contact Lenses and only wear Glasses when I have to. I don’t see anything that any company could do that would make me choose Glasses over Contact Lenses. Anymore, I’m trying to go for less screen time and not more. Spending time with friends face to face is far more enjoyable than having a screen in front of my face all the time. Not much point in being with people if you’re not with/engaging with people. 🙂

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Both of these products will likely launch around 2027, according to previous reporting.

What do you think about Apple developing a pair of smart glasses? Let us know in the comments.

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Michael Burkhardt mbrkhrdt

Michael is 9to5Mac’s Weekend Editor, keeping up with all of the latest Apple news on Saturday and Sunday. He got started in the world of Apple news during the pandemic, and it became a growing hobby. He’s also an indie iOS developer in his free time, and has published numerous apps over the years.

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