Apple is accelerating development of three new wearable devices, smart glasses, a pendant-style device and AirPods fitted with cameras, as it tries to build hardware around a more capable, AI-driven Siri, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported on February 17, citing people familiar with the plans.
According to the report, early prototypes of the glasses are already in the hands of Apple engineers. The company is aiming to begin production toward the end of 2026 and to launch the product in 2027. Apple has not commented on the report and does not discuss unannounced products.
Visual intelligence as the organizing idea
The common thread across the three devices is what Apple calls visual intelligence: software that can see the user’s surroundings through a camera and respond to them, rather than only listening to speech or reading text. Apple introduced a limited version of the feature on the iPhone in 2024, where it identifies objects, translates signs and looks up businesses through the camera.
In a pair of glasses or a pendant, the same capability could recognize a building, a product or a landmark and provide information immediately, give walking directions, or translate a conversation in real time, without the user pulling out a phone. Camera-equipped AirPods would extend a narrower version of the idea to a device many people already wear for hours a day.
A Siri powered partly by Google
The devices depend on a much-improved Siri. In January, Apple and Google announced a multiyear agreement under which Google’s Gemini models will underpin Apple’s next-generation foundation models, including the revamped Siri due in 2026. That partnership, between two companies that have competed in phones and operating systems for 15 years, means Apple’s most personal hardware may rely on a rival’s AI for some of its core intelligence, at least initially.
Apple has said that its on-device processing and Private Cloud Compute architecture will continue to protect user data regardless of which models are used, though the details of how Gemini-based models fit into that system have not been fully disclosed.
Catching up with Meta
The glasses would compete directly with Meta’s Ray-Ban and Oakley smart glasses, which have sold in the millions and added a display version in late 2025. Meta has a multiyear lead in both hardware and the AI assistant built into it. Apple’s history suggests it rarely enters a category first, but it has repeatedly taken an existing idea mainstream, as it did with the smartwatch and wireless earbuds.
Whether that pattern holds for glasses is an open question. Battery life, weight, prescription lens support and the social acceptability of face-worn cameras remain unsolved problems for every company in the category. If Apple does succeed, the long-term implication is that the primary screen moves from the pocket to the field of view, which would reshape how people work, shop and communicate much as the smartphone did.
