Samsung has been quietly working on smart glasses since 2023, and at MWC 2026 in Barcelona, Executive Vice President Jay Kim finally revealed some details to CNBC. Not everything – Samsung isn’t that generous – but enough to understand what the company is actually building.
Here’s the confirmed part: The glasses will feature a camera positioned at eye level. This camera transmits what you’re seeing directly to a connected Galaxy smartphone, which does all the processing and sends useful information back to you. The glasses are the eyes; Your phone is your brain.
Glasses like eyes, phone like brain
It’s a clever way to keep the hardware slim without compromising on performance, and it’s essentially the same approach Meta took with Ray-Ban glasses – which currently make up a majority of the smart glasses market, so the playbook clearly works.
What Kim wouldn’t confirm is whether the glasses have a built-in display. When pressed, he pointed to Samsung’s watches and phones for anyone who needs a screen – which is as close to a “no” as you can get without actually saying it.
A separate report suggests a version with a display could launch in 2027, making this year’s model more of a camera and AI experience.
Will there be an exhibition?
The larger tone is what the AI actually does with what it sees. Samsung wants the glasses to catch you glancing at a restaurant’s menu and translating it, glancing at a landmark and telling you its story, or quietly completing tasks—booking, sending messages, navigating—without having to take your phone out of your pocket.
Qualcomm and Google have been in the space since 2023, helping develop the chips and software to make this possible.
As for when this will all actually materialize, Kim said Samsung wants to release something for the industry this year, and Qualcomm’s Cristiano Amon reiterated the same commitment for 2026 at the same event. A specific date? That still remains unclear – but considering how much Samsung showed off at MWC, it’s probably not far off.
