Apple Delays Its AI Glasses to 2027 Over Privacy Fears

Apple is telling developers to expect its first AI powered glasses at WWDC in June 2027, according to Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman, with retail sales timed for that year’s holiday season. That is roughly a year later than earlier reports had suggested. The holdup is not a chip shortage or a supply chain snag.

It is a camera Apple still has not decided how to build. Engineers have spent months testing designs ranging from no camera at all to one that can see but never save what it records, a level of caution Meta skipped when it rushed Ray-Ban glasses to market. Meta is now dealing with the fallout, and Apple is trying not to inherit it.

Apple’s Three Options for the Camera Question

Gurman’s reporting lays out three configurations Apple’s hardware and software teams have prototyped. Each trades capability for a different level of privacy protection, and Apple has reportedly not settled on a final answer.

• No camera at all: the simplest option, stripping out the sensor entirely and limiting the glasses to audio, Siri access and display features.
• A camera that cannot record: full sensor hardware stays in, but it only feeds live surroundings to on device AI features, similar to Apple’s Visual Intelligence tools, with no ability to save a photo or video.
• A full camera with a visible indicator: complete photo and video capture paired with a light or on screen signal meant to make recording obvious to bystanders, the option Gurman’s sources describe as the most likely path since it preserves the most functionality.

The same low power sensing hardware being tested for the glasses may also show up in a future pair of AirPods, extending Apple’s AI ambitions beyond the face entirely. Whichever camera path Apple picks, the glasses are expected to ship with a microphone, speakers and direct access to Siri, putting them in the same functional category as Meta’s product from day one.

What a BBC Investigation Found Inside Meta’s Glasses

Meta’s own glasses already include a small recording light, and it has not been enough. A BBC investigation this year found men using Meta’s smart glasses to secretly film women, including intimate footage recorded without the subject’s knowledge or consent. Some of that footage was routed to content reviewers at Sama, a Kenya based contractor, for labeling, meaning the material passed through workers who never asked to see it either.

That is the backdrop Apple is designing against. Meta’s glasses look close enough to ordinary sunglasses that the people around the wearer often cannot tell a camera is present at all, indicator light or not. It is a design choice that helped Meta sell frames fast. It is also the exact problem regulators and plaintiffs are now pointing to.

Gurman’s Report Leaves Key Questions Open

The reporting is detailed but incomplete, which is normal for a product Apple has not confirmed exists. Here is what is solid and what is still guesswork.

• Confirmed: Apple is targeting a developer unveiling at WWDC in June 2027, with consumer sales expected in time for that year’s holiday season.
• Confirmed: the glasses will include a microphone, speakers and Siri access, and Apple has prototyped privacy safeguards not present on any current Apple product.
• Confirmed: three distinct camera configurations have been tested internally, weighted toward privacy over Meta’s approach.
• Unconfirmed: which camera configuration Apple will actually ship.
• Unconfirmed: retail price, and whether the AirPods sensor tech arrives before or after the glasses themselves.

Who Protects Bystanders From Smart Glasses Recordings?

Mostly state law, and it varies enormously by where you happen to be standing. Federal law requires only one party to a conversation to consent to its recording, so a hidden camera alone breaks no national rule. Eleven states require every party’s consent, and in California, Florida, Illinois, Maryland and Massachusetts, recording someone without it can be prosecuted as a felony rather than a misdemeanor.

California is trying to close the gap further. State Senator Eloise Gómez Reyes introduced Senate Bill 1130, the Wearable Device Privacy Protection Act, in February 2026, which would make it a crime to secretly record people using wearable devices inside places of business. The bill exists because a blinking light on a pair of glasses, it turns out, is easy to miss, cover or simply ignore, and the people caught on camera get no say in whether they end up recorded at all.

Google Already Ran This Experiment

Apple is not the first company to hit this wall. Google discontinued the consumer version of Google Glass in January 2015, less than two years after launch, following a backlash that got the device banned in casinos, hospitals, movie theaters, college classrooms and restaurants. Roughly 72 percent of Americans told pollsters at the time that they were concerned about the privacy implications, and wearers picked up an unflattering nickname, glasshole, that stuck harder than the product did.

Google shelved the consumer version but kept developing an enterprise edition, which found a second life in warehouses and clinics rather than on mainstream faces. The $1,500 price tag did not help either, but privacy was the headline problem in 2015, and it is the headline problem again more than a decade later, just aimed at a different company.

How Far Ahead Meta Is

Whatever Apple ships in 2027, it arrives into a market Meta already controls. Counterpoint Research put Meta’s share of global smart glasses sales at 84 percent in a mid-2026 count; IDC’s tally for roughly the same period came in lower, at 69.2 percent. The two research firms disagree on the exact number, but not on the direction: nobody is close to catching Meta yet.

Ray-Ban Meta shipments reached 7.4 million units in 2025, up 281 percent from the year before, out of roughly 8.7 million AI and smart glasses sold worldwide that year. IDC now forecasts shipments climbing past 27 million units by 2030, which is why Apple, Snap, Google and Samsung are all willing to fight for a slice of a category Google itself walked away from a decade ago. Samsung is replaying Android’s old playbook against Meta, pairing its own hardware with Google’s software the way it once countered the iPhone, with a launch expected later this year.

A Market That Won’t Wait for Apple

By the time Apple’s glasses reach developers, three rivals will already have had a full year or more on shelves. Snap plans to launch its AR focused Specs later in 2026 at $2,195, a price aimed squarely at developers and enthusiasts rather than mainstream buyers. Google and Samsung are targeting a joint AI glasses launch in the same window, Google’s second attempt at the category after walking away from it once already.

Component orders tell their own story about demand. Meta’s Ray-Ban Display glasses pushed suppliers to revise component orders upward twice, according to TrendForce, evidence that Meta’s lead is not just about market share numbers but about actual consumer pull. For now, Apple’s glasses exist only as a developer target on a 2027 calendar, while Meta keeps shipping, Snap keeps pricing at the high end, and lawmakers in California decide whether a recording light on someone’s face counts as a real warning at all.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses show when they are recording?

Yes, current Ray-Ban Meta glasses include a small LED light that activates during recording, but the BBC investigation and California’s proposed Senate Bill 1130 both point to the same problem: the light is small, easy to obscure and easy for bystanders to miss entirely, which is why hidden filming cases kept surfacing despite the indicator’s existence.

Is it illegal to record someone with smart glasses without asking?

It depends entirely on the state. Federal law only requires one party to a conversation to consent to its recording, so a solo recording breaks no national rule by itself. Eleven states require every party’s consent, and doing it anyway is a felony in California, Florida, Illinois, Maryland and Massachusetts rather than a lesser misdemeanor.

What happened to Google Glass after it was discontinued?

Google pulled the consumer version from sale in January 2015 after roughly two years on the market, but the project did not disappear. Google kept building an enterprise edition aimed at warehouses, factories and clinical settings, finding commercial success there years after the mainstream version had become a punchline.

Will Apple’s smart glasses require an iPhone to work?

Bloomberg’s reporting does not specify a firm answer, but Apple’s other wearables offer a strong hint: AirPods and the Apple Watch have historically leaned on an iPhone connection for setup and full functionality, and there is no indication so far that the glasses would break from that pattern.

How much will Apple’s AI glasses cost?

Apple has not disclosed a price, and Gurman’s reporting does not include one. The existing market gives a rough bracket: Meta’s glasses start at $299, while Snap’s AR focused Specs cost $2,195, and Apple’s glasses are widely expected to land somewhere between those two extremes depending on which camera configuration it ships.