Google is designing its Intelligent Eyewear so the hardware resists tampering, XR product lead Juston Payne told Tom's Guide, and said the company has ways to detect when someone tries to interfere with the glasses, though he didn't say how. Google will share more on how it keeps the recording light accurate later this year, with the goal that if footage can be reviewed later, the light was on when it was captured.
A workaround market grew around disabling the LED on Ray-Ban Meta glasses so bystanders couldn't tell they were being recorded, which pushed Meta to release a software update that shuts the camera off if the light is tampered with. Google is going after the same problem from the hardware side, and Payne framed the stakes plainly: glasses people don't trust are glasses people won't wear.
Payne also gave Google's on-record read of its competition. He called Apple's track record strong and expects real competition once Apple's glasses arrive, reportedly in 2027, and framed the core difference as Google building a platform multiple partners build on while Apple builds a single product across its own hardware, software, and ecosystem.