No, Apple didn't announce smart glasses at WWDC. Or camera AirPods. Or a folding phone. This developer conference was, as many expected, free of new products. But while this show was all about the new Siri and other AI capabilities, in many ways that's exactly what's needed to drive smart glasses and more in the next years.
I said this in a preview story ahead of WWDC, and now that the news is out I feel like it's even more true.
Watch this: The Reality of WWDC26: Reactions to Siri AI
A persistent, more deeply aware and visually enabled AI framework that now works across all Apple devices looks like phase one of a system that Apple glasses or camera AirPods or really anything else could lean on to feel like extensions of the Apple product ecosystem. And it might turn out to be a more private and maybe less creepy iteration of the tech that Meta and Google have been advancing, too.
I've already been trying a bit of Siri AI via Apple's early developer preview beta, and it's already getting me thinking.
Without displays, Apple's first-gen glasses are going to need the new supercharged Siri to keep track of things in a contained app. (Meta Ray-Bans shown here.)
Scott Stein/CNETAn AI app to link everything
Any pair of smart glasses that's out in the world right now runs on a single AI platform. Meta uses Meta AI. Google uses Gemini. Now, clearly, the Apple glasses expected in 2027 will use Siri AI. Glasses use AI to recognize the world through cameras, and voice, and it can hook in notifications and apps when possible.
Meta's glasses have been hindered by their relatively few phone hook-ins, which makes their AI feel disconnected from most things anyone might be doing on apps anywhere else. Only a few apps interlink right now: Spotify, Apple Music, Strava, Garmin and Meta's own core apps. Meta's starting to open up app development for its display glasses, but a lot of the apps really work more like browser extensions.
Siri being contained in an app now means devices without screens, like glasses, might have better continuity with other devices you're connected to like phones. It also remembers previous conversations.
Apple/CNET screenshotGoogle's going to take things further by interlinking with Gemini, and also acting as an extension to Android. A line of glasses coming this fall should be a huge leap forward in making glasses that feel like they're more of an extension of your phone, even serving up apps and notifications in display-enabled models.
Apple looks like it now has the pieces, in Siri form, to get to glasses, based on everything I've seen. Siri's new iteration can keep a history of chats, work across devices and even take on actions to interlink with apps or write into apps like Notes or Calendar.
Watch this: What We Know About the New Siri, Coming to All Your Apple Things
There's one area where Apple could leap over everyone else, though, and that's deep contextual threads through Apple's own operating systems and the content we keep on them. I don't know how well the new Siri works yet, but Apple's new reindexing of all its devices using Spotlight search is made to feed into Siri's awareness of everything. App permissions to hook into Siri, already laid into an "app intents framework" that Apple has on its devices, could allow Siri to hook into other apps fluidly. And if Siri can do it, then glasses will be able to do it, too.
Visual Intelligence on Siri is getting more advanced this year, and smart glasses are going to need it.
Scott Stein/CNETSiri can see things better now
Apple also added a visually aware layer that it was missing, for the most part. Siri can see things in the room when the Camera app is open on the iPhone or recognize what's on your phone screen. On the Vision Pro, the camera awareness is even faster in VisionOS 27. Asking Siri what's there, and simply looking at it, triggers Siri's awareness of what you're seeing on an app or in the room with you.
Apple doesn't have "live" continuous visual awareness for Siri yet. Meta and Google both have live modes on their glasses and the Samsung Galaxy XR that can continuously see and analyze videos or video games, or be a constant companion while doing something actively. But that could come. What you'll get from Siri AI starting in the fall is a big leap toward a major missing piece.
Siri lives as an orb in VisionOS 27 now, and can see your room and your open apps.
AppleThe Vision Pro's evolutions are a sign
Apple's Vision Pro headset is gaining a few subtle upgrades with Siri AI and VisionOS 27, and each of them feels like a piece that could be a part of glasses.
Siri has its most distinctive manifestation on VisionOS, with a glowing ball-companion form that can look like it's in the room with you. When Apple attempts to make AR glasses that could shrink the Vision Pro down and plug into a phone -- similar in spirit to the idea behind Google and Xreal's Project Aura, coming later this year, which uses a phone-like processing puck -- maybe this Siri form could come along. It's also an always-aware, all-seeing AI that could move into those glasses, starting with what's emerging on VisionOS now.
Apple's also added a little trick to expand notifications when you glance at them in the new VisionOS, something makes me wonder if Apple's trying to imagine how notifications on an everyday pair of glasses could expand and contract on the fly to avoid being distracting. Apple glasses are unlikely to have eye tracking anytime soon, but maybe those notifications will shrink and expand with hand gestures or air taps via an Apple Watch, which now has another gestural command in WatchOS 27 to add to its slowly growing collection.
Apple's glasses could be a key next piece in the connected device puzzle.
Scott Stein/CNETThe Vision Pro is a feature-rich, superpowered and expensive mixed-reality computer, something that glasses won't be able to approach for a long time.
But Siri has all theses pieces across all of Apple's multiform devices, and Apple is committed to making it all work privately. That sounds like exactly the formula for a pair of smart glasses – or an AI pendant, or camera-enabled AirPods – to potentially feel like an intelligent companion.
The Vision Pro's taking the first steps, but I expect glasses will take over part of the journey on where Apple's heading next. We won't know anything more now, and may not hear anything again until sometime in 2027. But Apple's very infrastructural WWDC in 2026 was probably the next major step in getting there.
