A smart glasses company Solos has long focused on audio-only smart glasses. On Tuesday, it announced two new pairs of glasses, one of which has a camera—but you can buy a separate one to hide the camera for privacy.
Solos’ new smart glasses are the audio-only AirGo A6 and the second iteration of its camera-enabled glasses, the Solos AirGo V2. This was first announced last year as an attempt to “overcome Meta” directly. These $299 glasses do almost everything you’d expect from $299 Meta smart glasses, including taking photos and videos, playing music, and interacting with an AI-powered assistant that can see what you’re seeing. They can be fitted with prescription lenses and have a battery life of 10 to 12 hours.
The AirGo V2 glasses can also be paired with the new Privacy Kit, a set of accessories that allow wearers to control what their camera glasses can access. The clip-on privacy shield blocks cameras from viewing and recording the world, allowing you to continue wearing the glasses in audio-only mode. There’s also a split lens clip, and a complete kit of module options costs $79.
Selling a privacy kit as a clip-on device is probably not the most effective way to curb concerns about people running around with small, smart cameras on their faces. Buying a separate device, then turning it on and off every time you want to use or disable the camera, is a lot of extra steps that could keep people from worrying about privacy at all. Also, there’s nothing to prevent bad actors from removing clip-on blockers later in the interaction—say, after an event that prevents the camera from recording.
Courtesy of Solos Smartglasses
Solos’ first camera-enabled glasses, the Solos AirGo Vision, were launched in 2024. WIRED placed them in the “Don’t Bother” section of our Best Smart Glasses gallery, citing a decent design choice, albeit hampered by mediocre media capture quality, frustrating touch controls, and an app too hungry for permissions. Overall, the glasses are still not up to the standards set by Meta with its popular smart glasses.
Meta has always dominated the smart glasses market, but other big companies are trying to fill the cracks. Google and Samsung have a partnership to build Google’s Android XR platform, with new glasses coming later this year from eyewear companies Warby Parker and Gentle Monster. Apple is reportedly developing its own smart glasses.
Other smaller companies are adjusting their target markets to challenge the Meta, such as Even Realities and its cameraless glasses. Solos’ renewed emphasis on privacy comes after a period of widespread criticism of Meta’s glasses. The devices were dubbed creepy “pervert glasses” and criticized after the company quietly added facial recognition code to its glasses, only to quickly remove it after a public outcry following a WIRED report. Meta hasn’t done anything for itself since, announcing last week that it would start charging for features on its smart glasses that were previously free.
Meta acknowledged that there is a market for hearing glasses alone, as CTO Andrew Bosworth said in a private Q&A session with the media that he thinks “there is definitely a market need for that product.” But the Meta hasn’t moved away from its camera-forward glasses just yet. It may only make audio glasses in the future. Until then, companies like Solos are determined to get out of that market.
