Apple smart glasses are reportedly in testing with four frame designs, a sign that the company’s wearable ambitions are getting more concrete even as the product itself stays display-free. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple is aiming to sell the glasses in 2027 and could show them off by the end of this year.
The reported options are a large rectangular frame, a slimmer rectangular frame similar to the glasses worn by Tim Cook, a larger oval or circular frame, and a smaller oval or circular frame. Apple is also said to be weighing black, ocean blue, and light brown finishes, which sounds less like a moonshot and more like a fashion problem with chips attached.
What Apple smart glasses are expected to do
These glasses would reportedly let users take photos and videos, answer phone calls, play music, and interact with Apple’s long-promised Siri upgrade. They would not include displays, which puts them closer to Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses than to the company’s own mixed-reality headset ambitions.
That shift matters. Apple’s earlier bet on a broader mixed- and augmented-reality lineup has already run into delays, and the Vision Pro’s reception was hardly the kind of launch that makes a company rush to double down. A lighter, more affordable glasses product is the more believable next move, especially in a category where Meta has already shown there is real demand for something you can wear without feeling like you borrowed lab equipment.
Why Apple is testing multiple frame shapes
Testing four designs suggests Apple is still trying to solve the same old wearable puzzle: make the tech useful enough without making the glasses look like tech. The company has a habit of turning design choices into product strategy, and in smart glasses that may be the whole game – if people do not want to wear them, the software spec sheet does not matter much.
For now, the cleanest read is that Apple wants a product that can be pitched as an everyday accessory first and a gadget second. If it gets that balance right, the 2027 timeline suddenly looks less like a rumor and more like the beginning of a new hardware category for Apple’s ecosystem.