Magic Leap is again.

The tech firm, now owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Funding Fund, immediately revealed a prototype for a pair of Android XR sensible glasses made as a “reference design for the Android XR ecosystem,” and introduced it had prolonged its partnership with Google. The AR glasses have thicker-than-normal frames, however not ridiculously so, and appear to have a digital camera. However that’s about all we all know: there is not any phrase on availability or what the glasses really do.

Whereas Magic Leap did not reveal a ton of concrete particulars about its new shades, it did say they mix “Magic Leap’s waveguides and optics with Google’s Raxium microLED gentle engine” with the objective being an all-day AR wearable.

“Magic Leap and Google’s collaboration is targeted on growing AR glasses prototypes that stability visible high quality, consolation, and manufacturability,” the firm stated in a press release.

Magic Leap and Google’s spotty historical past in AR

That every one sounds good, however each firms have stepped into AR prior to now and launched merchandise that fell far in need of expectations. Again in 2018, there was lots of pleasure amongst tech-heads in regards to the Magic Leap One, however the $2,295 augmented and digital actuality headset fizzled, promoting an estimated 6,000 items in six months. Magic Leap deserted Magic Leap One again in 2024, but it surely’s apparently prepared to leap again in with one thing new.

Google has a good deeper historical past in AR that did not catch on, having launched Google Glass in 2014 with a large amount of hype, and mainly deserted the product in 2015 after privateness considerations and restricted performance resulted in disappointing gross sales.

To be honest, each Google Glass and the Magic Leap One had potential, however might have been forward of their time—mid-2010s {hardware} couldn’t ship on the probabilities at a value that was affordable. It is a completely different world in 2025, when everybody from Apple to Meta to dozens of smaller gamers are hoping to launch killer AR glasses.

The AR-smart glasses area is getting mighty crowded, however the objective is not actually this era of sensible glasses, it is the following one. The sport-behind-the-game for the tech firms is making a pair of sensible glasses which might be useful and versatile sufficient to switch your telephone fully. In some methods, we’re tantalizing shut to a pair of shades that may exchange all different screens—the shows in glasses just like the XReal One are superb. However different technical limitations, like a battery that may final an inexpensive period of time, and an intuitive management system, are nonetheless on the horizon. For now.