A Bloomberg report suggests that Apple Glasses might be launched without the capability to take photos or record video. Apple is said to be considering this option as a way to address privacy concerns.
However, while that reasoning is understandable, firsthand experience with Ray-Ban Meta glasses makes clear that video recording is absolutely core functionality for this type of product.
Privacy drives a lot of the decisions Apple makes, and it is one of the selling points of the ecosystem. With AI features, the company aims to carry out processing on device wherever possible. Where cloud processing is needed, Private Cloud Compute is designed to ensure that Apple has no access to user data, and provides security researchers with the ability to verify this for themselves. This is without qualification a good thing.
Smart Glass Privacy Concerns
There’s also no doubt that smart glasses with video recording capabilities do create privacy concerns. This was one of the key reasons why Google Glass failed, with users acquiring the unfortunate nickname Glassholes.
Ray-Ban Meta glasses have also raised privacy concerns, in part because of one particularly despicable way in which they have been used by some YouTubers, as BBC News reported earlier this year.
Women leaving the beach, going into a shop, or simply standing outside are now being approached by men usually wearing Meta’s Ray-Bans, the company’s “smart” or “AI” glasses, often in order to film the women’s responses to casual questions or pick-up lines without their knowledge or consent. The women only find out about the videos of them after they gain traction, and often abuse, online.
The company also came under fire when it was found to be sending sensitive video footage to human data annotators, including accidental recordings.
For all of these reasons, it is entirely understandable why Apple would have concerns about including video recording capabilities in Apple Glasses.
But Video Recording Is a Key Feature
The problem for Apple is that video recording is a key feature of today’s smart glasses, and personal experience with the Ray-Ban Meta makes clear that the device simply wouldn’t be worth using without it.
Here are the main capabilities of Ray-Ban Meta glasses, along with a practical assessment of each:
- Ask Meta AI questions based on what you see
- Play music
- Make and receive hands-free voice calls
- Get voice notifications, including reading out incoming messages
- Take a POV photo, by pressing a button or using a voice command
- Shoot POV video, also by pressing a button or using a voice command
Ask AI Questions
Meta sells this as one of the key reasons to buy the glasses, and there’s no doubt that it makes a great first impression. For example, you could look at a famous landmark and ask your glasses to tell you something about it. They can also identify a wide variety of things, from flowers to sculptures — like having Apple Intelligence on tap without taking your iPhone out of your pocket.
These capabilities were tested extensively at first, and the future possibilities were exciting — imagining things like looking around at different restaurants and having the glasses display average TripAdvisor ratings and recommended dishes. As things stand, however, this capability goes almost entirely unused, and it isn’t a strong enough reason to routinely wear a pair of smart glasses.
Play Music
The audio quality simply isn’t there with tiny speakers mounted in the arms of the glasses. Headphones are always going to be a better option, and in-ear ones are just as convenient.
Hands-Free Voice Calls
It’s very occasionally useful to take a brief phone call while cycling without wearing in-ear headphones that block surrounding sounds. For anything more than a few sentences, however, pulling over is the better option — so this feature alone isn’t a good enough reason to routinely wear smart glasses.
Voice Notifications
These are genuinely useful. Incoming text messages from iMessage or WhatsApp can be read aloud while walking or cycling. Once again, however, the benefit is not significant enough to justify a purchase on its own.
Photos and Video
This is the biggest benefit of today’s smart glasses. Being able to capture point-of-view footage without reaching for a phone is ideal for special experiences like a roller coaster ride or sailing, but it’s also a genuinely valuable way to relive things like exploring a sightseeing destination on holiday. As noted in the original Ray-Ban Meta glasses review:
For video in particular, it’s far less intrusive to automatically capture point-of-view footage without interrupting what I’m doing than it is to hold up my phone. Additionally – and importantly – I’m not then ending up viewing the scene through a phone screen instead of my own eyes. That’s a very different experience to taking my phone out of my pocket and viewing the scene through that.
Video recording is also a great way to document cycle rides. Given that sunglasses would typically be worn anyway, pressing a button on them is less hassle than mounting a camera on a bike. Motorcycling riders use them the same way.
This is by far the biggest motivation for wearing them, and without it, the device simply wouldn’t be worth the effort. An Apple Glasses product without photo and video recording capabilities would be dead on arrival. (The calculus is different for smart glasses with a display, but that is not what is expected in a first-generation Apple Glasses product.)
What Should Apple Do?
Reconciling the conflicting demands of utility and privacy is not impossible.
One criticism of Ray-Ban Meta glasses is that although they have a flashing LED to indicate video recording, it isn’t particularly visible, especially in bright sunlight. Apple could ensure its own indicator LED is high-visibility.
The company could also fit external speakers in the arms and use audio pings when recording starts and stops, alerting anyone nearby. Another option is to remove the hardware button for photo and video entirely, requiring a voice command instead. Both approaches would make it obvious to bystanders that they are being filmed.
There’s no perfect solution. Nothing would stop someone starting a recording at a distance before approaching someone. But a combination of these privacy protection features could be effective in the vast majority of situations. The standard Apple needs to hit isn’t perfection — it’s making the glasses sufficiently difficult to abuse that bad actors would not choose them as their device of choice.
