is a senior editor and founding member of The Verge who covers gadgets, games, and toys. He spent 15 years editing the likes of CNET, Gizmodo, and Engadget.
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Despite its partners Samsung and Motorola getting into flip-style phones where the screens opens up vertically like an old school Motorola Razr, Google says it intends to sit out that race. It’s also not currently working on a smart ring and has paused development on a tablet overhaul until it figures out a meaningful future for the category, executives said.
Osterloh says it’s still “TBD” whether Google itself will release glasses again, but he’s intent on the category being part of the company’s future.
To be fair, Google has almost always shown off those glasses prototypes alongside the XR headsets it’s co-developing with Samsung, and — like Meta — it seems more interested in making Android XR a platform for other glasses partners too.
If Google were to release glasses again, though, Bloomberg did get one interesting hint about how they might work. Osterloh and his deputy Shakil Barkat suggested in the interview that display-free glasses might pair nicely with a smaller phone, one that could unfold for your entertainment needs as well. But, again, it sounds like Google wants to “sit out” Razr-style folding flip phones for now.
Google would hesitate before announcing glasses, I bet, because of its infamous fails with the original Google Glass. We ranked it near the very top of the list in our 84 biggest flops of the past decade in tech, though I imagine a modern version would get a less frosty reception in the post Meta Ray-Ban world.
Lastly, if you’re curious when Pixel phone design might change again, perhaps away from big camera bumps, design chief Ivy Ross told Bloomberg that the company tries on new design languages “every two to three years.” That means it’s due.