Are smart glasses cool yet? In certain circles, the answer would likely be yes, but there are still plenty of people who’ll need more convincing (and yes, I’m one of them).
This week, we got a hint of a possible new entrant to the smart glasses market – one with the potential to put a stylish new twist on tech specs. British tech company Nothing is best known for making smartphones and headphones, but according to Bloomberg, it’s considering branching out into smart glasses.
The company is hoping to launch the glasses in the first half of 2027, said Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter. The glasses will reportedly feature cameras, microphones and speakers, and have AI capabilities that will largely be handled off device. Nothing declined to comment on the rumors.
Smart glasses are booming as a product category, with Counterpoint Research identifying 139% year-over-year growth for the segment in the second half of 2025. The market is dominated by Meta, making it ripe for a disruptive challenger – ideally a relative renegade – to come in with a fresh approach.
I’ve tried smart glasses — I’m yet to be convinced.
I’m rather a smart glasses skeptic, but I’d enjoy seeing a fashion-forward tech brand such as Nothing branch out into eyewear. With the company’s emphasis on design, it seems like a natural fit for it to tackle wearable tech and hopefully put a unique spin on it that might persuade people like me that smart specs are indeed the way forward.
Here are three things I think Nothing could do to make a splash and set itself apart:
A continuation of the company’s transparent aesthetic
Nothing has built its brand around its transparent design language, which exposes the underlying circuitry and wires inside its products. It’s nostalgic, bold and imaginative – and crucially would translate easily and effectively to eyewear.
Transparent frames are already very much a thing in the world of glasses – and even Meta has experimented with them. But I feel confident that Nothing could apply its signature aesthetic sensibilities in a way that would be distinctive and original. It could play with color – the blue and pink seen on the Nothing Phone 4A and 4A Pro, for example.
Transparent design is in Nothing’s DNA.
When I think back to my conversation last month at Mobile World Congress with Nothing’s chief brand officer, Charlie Smith, it strikes me that branching out into wearables feels not only like a natural next step for Nothing, but something the brand is much better placed to tackle than its less stylish competitors.
Smith, fresh off the boat from luxury fashion brand Loewe, spoke of being impressed by Nothing’s “rebellious creativity” and the much-needed spirit of fun it was injecting into an industry long been dominated by minimalism. “There’s something about this kind of retrofuturism, this nostalgia that we’re tapping into – people are loving it,” Smith said.
“Personal technology is actually a lot about self expression,” he continued. “Our devices are really like an extension of us.”
Bonus points from me if Nothing finds a way to incorporate elements of its glowing glyph interface into the glasses.
A collaboration with a British indie brand
In a market flooded with devices made by massive corporations based in the US, South Korea and China, UK-based startup Nothing feels like the closest thing the phone industry has to an indie darling. What better way to cement that status than by collaborating with another British independent brand?
Meta’s collaborations with Ray-Ban and Oakley have been a winning formula in its own bid to establish smart glasses as a mainstream product category – but there’s also something predictable about a large company collaborating with another large company. Wayfarers might be timeless and easily wearable by anyone with a face, but they don’t exactly scream original thinking or strong sense of personal style.
It would be much more exciting for Nothing to work with up-and-coming British designers (it did, after all, host a launch event last month at iconic London design school Central Saint Martin’s). Equally, it could opt to join forces with a more established designer, such as JW Anderson. Sure, the resulting glasses might not be a lowest-common-denominator product worn by every Silicon Valley executive, but that’s not really Nothing’s vibe.
Fortunately, there’s precedent for Nothing picking independent British brands to work with rather than hitting up the industry’s most recognizable names. Its audio collaboration with KEF has already yielded some of the most distinctive headphones on the market. I’m confident it can do the same with glasses.
Nothing’s KEF collaboration in the flesh.
A major focus on audio and music
Let’s not forget that before Nothing was a smartphone company, it was a headphones company.
The expertise it’s established in audio over the past few years might just give a competitive edge over most companies currently making smart glasses. Many people have been surprised by how good the sound quality can be on existing smart specs, including Meta’s, but Nothing has an opportunity to take it to the next level.
Nothing’s earbuds were its first product.
Encouragingly, Nothing’s audio credentials were another thing Smith brought up in our conversation.
“The audio side of the business is really important to us because of the connection to music culture,” he said. “We love the idea of [our community] being tech and music and fashion… like this next generation of creatives all coming together around the brand.”
Leaning heavily into embracing music culture could be a key differentiator for Nothing, and could also help make smart glasses a more compelling product for people who are yet to be sold on video capture and AI features.
In the past I’ve argued that headphones are the ultimate AI wearable, but I’m prepared to revise my opinion if those headphones happen to be inside a pair of glasses I genuinely love to wear.