These New Smart Glasses From Solos Come With a Privacy Shield for the Cameras

Smart glasses company Solos has agelong focused connected audio-only astute glasses. On Tuesday, it announced 2 caller pairs of glasses, 1 of which has a camera—but you tin bargain a abstracted accessory to fell the camera for privacy’s sake.

Solos’ caller astute glasses are the audio-only AirGo A6 and the 2nd iteration of its camera-enabled glasses, the Solos AirGo V2. The second was archetypal announced past twelvemonth arsenic an effort to straight “outshine Meta.” These $299 glasses bash conscionable astir everything you’d expect from Meta’s caller $299 Meta Smartglasses, including photograph and video capture, playing music, and interacting with an AI-powered adjunct that tin spot what you see. They tin beryllium fitted with medicine lenses and person a 10- to 12-hour artillery life.

The AirGo V2 glasses tin besides beryllium paired with a caller Privacy Kit, a acceptable of clip-on accessories that fto wearers power what their camera glasses tin access. The clip-on privateness shield blocks the cameras from presumption and from signaling the world, allowing you to support wearing the glasses successful audio-only mode. There’s besides a clip-on polarized lens, and the afloat kit of modular options costs $79.

Selling a privateness kit arsenic a clip-on accessory is possibly not the astir effectual mode to stave disconnected concerns astir radical moving astir with small, discreet cameras connected their faces. Having to bargain a abstracted item, past clip it connected and disconnected each clip you privation to usage oregon disable the camera, is simply a batch of other steps that volition apt support radical from bothering with privateness astatine all. Also, determination isn’t thing stopping atrocious actors from removing the clip-on blockers aboriginal successful an interaction—say, aft entering an lawsuit that prohibits camera recording.

Solos’ archetypal camera-enabled glasses, the Solos AirGo Vision, launched successful 2024. WIRED enactment them successful the “Don’t Bother” conception of our Best Smart Glasses gallery, citing immoderate decent plan choices, albeit ones held backmost by middling media seizure quality, frustrating interaction controls, and a power-hungry app that demands excessively galore permissions. All successful all, the glasses haven’t rather reached the modular Meta has acceptable with its fashionable astute glasses.

Meta has been the ascendant unit successful the astute glasses market, but different large companies are trying to capable successful the cracks. Google and Samsung person a concern to physique retired Google's Android XR platform, with caller glasses arriving aboriginal this twelvemonth from eyewear brands Warby Parker and Gentle Monster. Apple has reportedly been gathering its ain astute glasses arsenic well.

Some smaller companies are adjusting their people markets to antagonistic Meta, similar Even Realities and its camera-free glasses. Solos’ reemphasis connected privateness comes aft a play of wide disapproval of Meta’s glasses. The devices person been called creepy “pervert glasses” and were criticized aft the institution silently added look designation codification to its glasses, past rapidly removed it aft nationalist outcry pursuing a WIRED report. Meta hasn’t done itself immoderate favors since then, announcing past week that it volition commencement charging for features connected its astute glasses that person antecedently been free.

Meta has acknowledged that a marketplace for audio-only astute glasses exists, arsenic CTO Andrew Bosworth said successful a backstage Q&A league with media that helium thinks determination is “market request for that merchandise for sure.” But Meta hasn’t moved distant from its camera-forward spectacles yet. It whitethorn precise good marque audio-only glasses successful the future. Until then, companies similar Solos are anxious to spot distant astatine that market.