Pros and Cons of Smart Glasses: A Comprehensive Overview

Within the last few decades, the pace of technological progress has skyrocketed. From large and chunky cameras to tiny lenses on smart glasses. Smart glasses have emerged as a potential game changer as they have emerged out of science fiction into reality. However, before you jump on the tech bandwagon, it’s important to know the pros and cons of smart glasses.    

Let’s check out the advantages and disadvantages of smart glasses:

1. Pro – Hands-Free Communication

Smart glasses make it super easy to talk without using your hands, something we couldn’t do before. Sure, we’ve had wireless earbuds for a while, but they still need you to fiddle with them to answer calls. Even if you’re using your phone’s voice assistant, you have to push a button or make a fancy gesture with those earbuds. But with smart glasses, you can forget about all that. Just say the magic words, and the voice assistant is there for you, no hands needed. This awesome feature is a game-changer for people with disabilities.

2. Con – Privacy Concern

Remember Google Glass? No one does since it was a failed product. However, it did a great job of distinguishing itself as a wearable piece of tech. However, modern smart glasses look identical to regular shades and are completely indistinguishable in public and that’s where the privacy alarm bells start ringing. See, these sneaky cameras can record you without you even noticing, which is pretty creepy and makes everyone feel uneasy. No one likes the idea of always being watched.

3. Pro – Immersive AR capabilities

AR headsets are gigantic and not as immersive as they claim to be. On the other hand, smart glasses bring the seamless AR experience that everyone has been looking for. This is revolutionary for gaming, education, customer services, and many other industries. Imagine, children, seeing an interactive figure of a dinosaur while learning about it in class. Taking notes and recording lectures becomes so easy. Design, engineering, and healthcare can also benefit when complex concepts are visualized in the form of 3D structures in the real world.

4. Con – Data and Monetization

In the digital age, data is the new gold, and those fancy smart glasses? Well, they’re like a brand new gold mine for big tech companies. As these glasses become more affordable, they’ll be worn by millions of people who will send heaps of data without even realizing it. And what you’re looking at with these glasses isn’t even a major concern. Tech giants would use metrics like how much your pupils dilate and how long you stare at stuff to know how you feel about different products and services.

When advertisers get their hands on this data, they can make super-customized profiles to target you with ads. Smartphones and the internet have already made it nearly impossible to keep your private stuff private, and these smart glasses are just making it even harder, especially when you have no say in what happens with your data.

5. Pro – Freedom from your phone

Smartphones are like our BFFs these days, right? We can’t do much without them – checking the news, handling payments, and, oh, social media apps, they’re like phone magnets trying to keep us hooked all day long. Smart glasses can help to reduce your reliance on phones and make you live more in the moment. Smartwatches have already made a dent in phone use and smart glasses are just about to turn it up a notch. 

Make sure to assess all the pros and cons carefully before buying a smart glass. Just like regular glasses, they aren’t cheap and cost several times more. You also need to have a higher sense of caution as these glasses can crack just as easily as regular shades. On the other hand, if you’re all about the cool factor, they could be a neat new gadget to mess around with.