Apple plans to announce its first smart glasses at WWDC next year, Gurman reports

Apple will announce its first smart glasses at its WWDC developer conference next June, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports, according to The Verge. The first model will not have augmented reality features, and Gurman says only that glasses shipments would begin before the end of the year.

The glasses will depend on Apple's revamped Siri, which is gaining fine-grained control over apps. By adding those features now and letting developers support them on the iPhone first, Apple hopes the glasses can launch with useful app integrations from day one.

The prototypes, code-named N50, run a pared-down version of visionOS on a new processor based on Apple's older smartwatch chips. They have Wi-Fi, so some functions keep working when the iPhone is out of range, such as listening to audio, though the glasses will not work as a fully independent device. Apple is emphasising style, privacy and audio quality, which employees describe as industry-leading, and the glasses charge from a flat magnetic charger roughly the size of a Tic Tac, which works while they are being worn.