Apple’s Smart Glasses Reportedly Pushed to Late 2027

Reports of Apple’s work on smart glasses have been gaining a lot of steam over the past year, but it seems that predictions of the release of the new wearables may have been overly optimistic.

While the rumor cycle was dominated for years by the dream of “Apple Glass” — a mythic set of augmented reality glasses that would project information into your eyeballs — those were a moonshot project from the very start. After all, when Apple finally did reveal a groundbreaking new mixed-reality wearable, it was a bulky headset that weighed 1.5 pounds and came in at $3,500 — and still needed an external battery pack to power it.

So, it wasn’t a big surprise when we heard in early 2025 that Apple has nixed its AR smart glasses project to pivot to simpler smart glassesakin to Meta’s Ray-Bans. While there was ample reason to believe that Apple was aiming for Apple Glass, and even researching more advanced technologies like smart contact lenses, the technology simply hasn’t yet caught up to the vision, and Apple decided it had better things for its engineers to work on.

Those simpler smart glasses have seemingly turned out to be at the top of that priority list, reportedly outpacing even a lighter and more affordable “Vision Air” headset, and with Apple going full-speed ahead, a late 2026 or early 2027 debut wasn’t out of the question.

Nevertheless, the latest word from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who has been the most prolific source of Apple’s work on AI and augmented reality wearables lately, is that the timing on this product has now been pushed back by nearly a year.

In his latest Power On newsletter, Gurman says Apple has experienced some “bumps on the road” in getting its new “N50” smart glasses ready. While late 2026 or early 2027 was Apple’s original goal — not too surprising, considering how fast its rivals are moving — “the company is now working toward launching the glasses at the end of next year,” Gurman says.

This could put Apple at a disadvantage against its competitors, but it may also result in a stronger product once the dust settles. Like so many other products that are being held back while waiting for Siri to smarten up, the Apple glasses will rely heavily on the voice assistant and the same type of visual intelligence capabilities baked into modern iPhone models. With the new Siri only expected to debut at next week’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), and not arrive as a fully-formed AI tool before iOS 27 ships this fall, it may take a little time to find its footing. Asking it to carry the weight of a set of smart glasses so early in its life could be a pretty big ask.

That’s not to say that Siri is the limiting factor in this case. Gurman doesn’t provide any reasons for the delay of the smart glasses, but it seems like giving Siri more time to mature before they debut can’t possibly be a bad thing. The glasses also won’t necessarily be the first camera-equipped AI wearables to come out of Apple. The company is also still working on camera-equipped AirPods Pro that are also simply waiting for Siri, plus an AI pin or pendant, both of which likely have fewer engineering challenges and could therefore still arrive before the smart glasses.

[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]