Samsung's smart glasses debut with Gentle Monster is a turning point for AI wearables

Dubai: The tech world has been trying to make smart glasses happen for years. Samsung might have just figured out how.

At Google I/O 2026 in California on May 19, Samsung and Google unveiled their first intelligent eyewear collection developed under the Android XR platform.

The glasses were co-created with Gentle Monster, the Seoul-based eyewear label that has quietly become one of the most culturally relevant accessory brands on the planet.

Samsung has been circling the smart glasses category for more than a decade, going back to a Gear Blink trademark filing back in 2014. There were internal projects, leaked codenames and plenty of rumours along the way, but nothing ever made it to shelves.

It was only earlier this year at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that Samsung's EVP of mobile Jay Kim confirmed the glasses would mark the company's first foray into the product category. That wait, it turns out, was worth something.

If you have spent any time on K-pop Twitter, fashion TikTok or anywhere near a street style photographer in the last five years, you already know Gentle Monster.

The brand has built a devoted global following through its sculptural, slightly futuristic frames, immersive retail spaces that feel closer to art installations than optical shops, and an uncanny ability to land on the right faces at the right time.

Stray Kids' Felix has been spotted in their frames. BLACKPINK's Jennie has worn them. Models, creatives and fashion obsessives across Seoul, New York and Dubai have made Gentle Monster a genuine style signifier.

That credibility is exactly what smart glasses have been missing.

The new intelligent eyewear integrates microphones, speakers, a camera and voice-based AI assistance directly into lightweight frames designed for everyday wear. Through Google's Gemini assistant, wearers can get navigation help, receive summarised notifications, make calls, capture photos, translate text on menus or signs in real time, and manage tasks entirely hands-free without ever reaching for their phone. The glasses connect to both Android and iOS smartphones wirelessly and are designed to work seamlessly within the Galaxy ecosystem. 

Unlike Meta, which is building toward a standalone device that eventually replaces your phone, Samsung and Google have positioned these glasses as a companion to your smartphone, much like a smartwatch. That distinction matters. It suggests the glasses could eventually tap into on-phone AI processing rather than cloud computing, which would give them a meaningful privacy advantage over their main rivals.

The design also leans fully into Gentle Monster's signature aesthetic. Slim oval frames, narrow tinted lenses and a sleek black finish that looks far more like something you would find in their stores than anything that has come out of a Silicon Valley lab.

Early prototypes deliberately avoid the bulky augmented reality displays associated with previous generations of smart glasses, keeping the focus on something that actually looks wearable in the real world.

A second collection developed with American eyewear brand Warby Parker was also announced, bringing a more refined and classic sensibility to the platform alongside Gentle Monster's bolder approach. Two very different aesthetics, one platform, covering the full style spectrum.

The history of smart glasses is not exactly flattering. Google Glass became a cultural punchline largely because of how it looked and what wearing it seemed to say about you. The frames were conspicuous, alienating and almost designed to make people around you uncomfortable. The technology was interesting. The social experience of wearing it was not.

Meta found a more successful formula with its Ray-Ban collaboration by embedding cameras and AI into a familiar silhouette rather than reinventing eyewear entirely. Samsung and Google appear to be pushing even further in that direction, choosing a brand whose entire identity is built on making eyewear something people genuinely want to be seen in.

There is also a meaningful technical edge here. Gemini natively integrates with the Android app ecosystem, including your calendar and email, without needing to build individual connections the way Meta does. For Android users especially, that seamlessness could be a genuine differentiator.

Juston Payne, senior director of product management for Android XR at Google, put it when speaking to WWD: eyewear is personal. It is part of how people project who they are to the world.

One caveat worth noting: Samsung, Google, Gentle Monster and Warby Parker have confirmed a fall launch in select markets but have stayed tight-lipped on pricing and an exact release date. Meta still holds the most important advantage right now, which is that you can actually buy its glasses. That gap narrows this autumn.

Pricing has not been confirmed, though given Gentle Monster's positioning, these are unlikely to be impulse purchases. The brand's regular frames already sit between roughly Dh900 to Dh1,400 , with some styles climbing higher.

The Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses cost for around Dh1,098 and Dh2,200 depending on the frame and model with prescription glasses selling for higher. Samsung's smart glasses might be around the same range and I estimate the price to be around Dh1,500 up to Dh2,000. However, as we get closer to the release date we will get to know more details.