Smart glasses are attracting brands fast. Consumer comfort ain’t keeping pace.

Just because everyone is doing something doesn’t make it a great idea.

Now Warby Parker is taking preorders for $395 smart glasses built with Google and Samsung. They have a 12-megapixel camera, microphones, speakers and Gemini built right in.

In fairness, Google has now thought harder about privacy than some predecessors.

Faces are designed to be redacted before Gemini processes imagery, an exterior light signals recording, covering that light disables capture, and Google says facial identification is totally prohibited across the platform.

Still.

I wouldn’t feel appreciably less creepy wearing Warby Parker perv glasses. Would you?

The category is attracting competitors because the growth numbers are irresistible.

IDC says display-less smart-glasses shipments jumped 167% year over year in Q1, with 13.6 million pairs forecast for 2026. Meta held 69.2% of the market.

That success can lead up to dangerous logic:

Meta sells lots. Therefore consumers want smart glasses.

Ergo, EVERYONE needs smart glasses!

Meanwhile, social acceptance is still deeply unresolved. Dutch eyewear chain Hans Anders recently stopped selling Meta’s camera-equipped Ray-Bans in the Netherlands and Belgium over privacy concerns.

And 55% of Americans under 30 now say AI makes them more concerned than excited.

More entrants might grow a category.

They can also saturate the hell outta it before the underlying deal-breaker has been solved.

The camera is close to invisible.

The discomfort around it, not so much.

If you’d like help creating and marketing products people feel compelled to buy, the product marketing consultants at Graphos Product can help.