{"id":2969,"date":"2025-06-21T17:51:21","date_gmt":"2025-06-21T17:51:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/2969\/"},"modified":"2025-06-21T17:51:21","modified_gmt":"2025-06-21T17:51:21","slug":"meta-and-google-made-big-promises-at-awe-but-ar-glasses-future-is-still-messy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/2969\/","title":{"rendered":"Meta and Google made big promises at AWE, but AR glasses’ future is still messy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Smart glasses are undeniably exploding. Speakers at Augmented World Expo 2025<\/a> panels on the future of smart glasses were passionately bullish on its future. But once specifically asked about augmented <\/strong>reality displays in glasses, the expert responses from Google, Meta, and others split into complicated, divergent visions of the future.<\/p>\n

In panels like “What does it take to achieve mass market adoption of AR products?”<\/a>, speakers from Google, Meta, and Qualcomm hyperfixated on AI and questioned whether “AR glasses” even need a visual display.<\/p>\n

They assured listeners that the world would inevitably adopt AR glasses, and even eventually “replace our phones” generations from now. But they had very different ideas on how they’d emulate smart glasses’ success, given that those are more affordable and naturally stylish.<\/p>\n

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\"Xreal<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Nicholas Sutrich \/ Android Central)<\/p>\n

AR glasses today have a growing market as extended displays for gaming and streaming. Some of my favorite demos at AWE came from Viture and XREAL AR glasses, with substantially improved FoV and color since my last time trying AR glasses.<\/p>\n

But that at-home entertainment niche aside, Big Tech wants AR glasses to serve as stylish, all-day companions for everyday consumers. That’s a much taller order.<\/p>\n

Here’s everything I pieced together from AWE 2025 panels about how AR glasses will evolve over the next few years \u2014 including the ways that Meta and Google, in particular, see AR glasses’ future very differently.<\/p>\n

AR glasses don’t have one clear blueprint for success like smart glasses<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Meta’s Kelly Ingham, Lenovo’s Jason McGuigan, and XREAL’s Ralph Jodice at AWE 2025 (Image credit: Michael Hicks \/ Android Central)<\/p>\n

During her panel “State of Smart Glasses and What’s Around the Corner<\/a>,” Meta VP of AR Devices Kelly Ingham addressed the obvious challenges facing AR glasses today.<\/p>\n

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“Displays are still heavy, right? How do you put a display in front of your eyes and have it be comfortable?” she asked rhetorically. “Is it monocular, or is it binocular? You add more weight, you add more cost.”<\/p>\n

XREAL’s Ralph Jodice, whose company recently made Android XR-powered AR glasses<\/a>, noted that while they’ve successfully grown FoV from 30\u00ba to 57\u00ba in the last couple years and will soon hit 70\u00ba, their customers aren’t satisfied. The main demand is “Make my FoV wider, make my glasses smaller,” and doing both is an obvious “challenge.”<\/p>\n

Ingham concluded that there will be a “broad set of categories” for AR glasses, from 30-degree displays for notification windows to 70-degree displays for full-on entertainment, and from cloud-based AI through your phone to a “full computer on your head.” There’s no one set path to success.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Google’s Bernard Kress, Meta’s Edgar Auslander, and Qualcomm’s Said Bakadir at AWE 2025 (Image credit: Michael Hicks \/ Android Central)<\/p>\n

Bernard Kress, Director of Google AR, made a similar point in the aforementioned panel<\/a> on mass market adoption of AR. He described a range of potential AR “market segments”:<\/p>\n