Samsung to Launch First Smart Glasses in 2026

Samsung announced plans Tuesday to launch its first smart glasses in 2026, marking a key expansion into wearable augmented reality technology as part of its broader push into AI-driven devices.

The confirmation came during the company's Q4 2025 earnings call, where Seong H. Cho, head of Samsung's mobile marketing division, outlined the strategy. "For XR, we plan to deliver rich, immersive, multimodal AI experiences through diverse form factors such as next-generation AR glasses," Cho said. The glasses will run on Android XR, a platform co-developed with Google for extended reality applications, and integrate deeply with Samsung's Galaxy ecosystem, including smartphones, smartwatches and rings. This setup aims to enable seamless features like hands-free notifications, media playback and contextual AI assistance powered by tools such as Google's Gemini.

Early models are expected to prioritize audio, camera and voice capabilities without full heads-up AR displays, allowing functions like video capture, calls and real-time navigation prompts. Executives indicated that these initial versions will resemble Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses, focusing on everyday utility rather than...