Overview
- Reportedly first disclosed in late July 2026 by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple is aiming to show the glasses to developers at WWDC in June 2027 with a consumer rollout planned by the end of 2027.
- Apple has pushed back earlier launch plans to focus engineering and marketing work on privacy safeguards rather than rush hardware to market.
- The company is said to favor on‑device processing, to avoid facial recognition and constant environment scanning, and to pledge not to use wearer recordings to train AI or send footage to external contractors for review.
- Engineers have prototyped multiple hardware approaches including camera‑free frames, cameras used only to feed local AI (with photo/video capture disabled), and conventional cameras, with the current expectation that a cameraed version plus strict protections is most likely to ship.
- The delay responds to public distrust after privacy controversies around Meta’s Ray‑Ban glasses, and Apple plans an extended post‑launch program of software updates, policy changes, and engagement with regulators and law enforcement to limit misuse.