Google kills off the latest iteration of its AR glasses

You might remember Google I/O 2022 last year when Google introduced a new pair of AR glasses. Unlike the beleaguered Google Glass, the new glasses looked like regular specs with black frames and nothing like the futuristic but odd-looking Google Glass from 2012. Google showed how its new AR glasses could be a huge help in real life. Check out the video that accompanies this article to see one cool way that AR glasses can make the world smaller.

If any technology could bridge the language gap, it would be something similar to Google's AR glasses since they allow people speaking different languages to understand in real-time what is being said to them, and translate their response so that it can be understood by the other person wearing his own glasses. And even though this type of translation is available on Pixel handsets with the "Live Translation" feature, there is something magical about seeing the translation right in front of your eyes as the words are being spoken.

But Google's AR glasses are ending up in the same location as many of the company's edgy ideas, compelling or otherwise. That would be the trash bin. Google even acquired Canadian smart glasses company North in 2020 with an eye toward returning to the consumer smart glasses market. Google stopped producing the consumer version of Google Glass in 2015 and earlier this year stopped offering a version for enterprise customers

As for Google's smart glasses revival, after the heads of Google's AR and VR units quit, constant changes in the company's focus (no pun intended) and company announced layoffs, it looks like Google is ending the project, at least on the hardware side.

Similar to how Google licenses Android to phone manufacturers, it might end up doing the same with its augmented reality software. While Google is reportedly planning on developing an Android XR platform for Samsung's mixed reality headset, it is also rumored to be working on a "micro XR" platform for other manufacturers' AR Glasses. Google continues to focus on AR software for now, so another promising bit of Google hardware appears to have been discarded by the gang in Mountain View.

However, two Google employees hint that Google could still fan the embers of the dying flame and bring back the glasses someday. Google still has some teams working on AR technologies so anything is possible.