Intelligente Brillen stürmen die IFA: AR-Interaktion wird zur Standardausstattung, und die Produkte gehen auf "Weniger ist Mehr", um einen qualitativen Wendepunkt zu erreichen.

On September 5, 2025 local time, the IFA 2025 officially opened in Berlin, Germany.

Source: Live photos from Lei Technology

In the middle of the year, Lei Technology expressed an opinion in its summary of smart glasses: Currently, there is a strong homogenization phenomenon among common smart glasses: Smart glasses without display function usually use the design of daily black frames and are equipped with the Qualcomm AR1 chipset and the Sony IMX 681 sensor. The display versions generally use monochrome (green) waveguide technology and offer functions such as map display, music playback, teleprompter, and AI question - answering. Apart from that, the different products only differ in the charging method and the design style of the glasses.

But according to Lei Technology's observations at the IFA 2025, the category of smart glasses has finally reached its "point of qualitative change".

To avoid homogenization, do "subtraction" on products

Firstly, more and more products are deciding to break away from the AR/XR chipset solutions of Qualcomm and develop their own products according to their own needs. To be honest, the Qualcomm AR1 is a very mature mobile platform that provides certain IO and AI capabilities to smart glasses products. But if all products in the industry choose the path of "big and comprehensive", it is also a good way to get out of the competition if one has the courage to do subtraction on smart glasses.

The brand BleeqUp for AI sports glasses presented its "Four - in - one" AI smart glasses Ranger at the IFA 2025. Different from other smart glasses brands, BleeqUp has set a very specific market path for the Ranger - cycling glasses specially developed for cycling enthusiasts.

Source: Live photos from Lei Technology

In terms of design, the Ranger has broken away from the traditional design style of smart glasses with "black frames and a neutral appearance" and chosen a very aggressive sports style. Such a design may not be suitable for daily use, but it is just right as sports equipment for cycling.

Naturally, the design is only one of the features of the BleeqUp Ranger. What really makes the BleeqUp Ranger stand out is its choice of chip. Since the BleeqUp is a smart glasses specialized in cycling and the user requirements for the glasses in the cycling scenario can be reduced to two points: music and recording, the BleeqUp Ranger has not chosen the full - functional Qualcomm AR1 platform like most other products, but a simplified chip platform specially developed for low - power consumption devices.

At first glance, the difference in the platform significantly weakens the horizontal competitiveness of the BleeqUp - this glasses has no AI question - answering and cannot display maps. But cycling enthusiasts don't need these functions when cycling: cycling enthusiasts have a GPS - enabled cadence meter on the way, a precise power meter on the bike, and a professional heart rate monitor on the body... From the beginning, cycling enthusiasts only need a glasses that can play music and record videos. And the "non - full - functional" chip not only brings the Ranger a longer battery life, but also enables the chip to concentrate more computing power on AI video anti - shake.

Source: Live photos from Lei Technology

According to Lei Technology, the way of "subtraction" makes smart glasses transform from the "all - round" to the "specialist" direction - Instead of stuffing all possible applications together under limited hardware conditions, it is better to concentrate resources on the experiences that can most impress the target group. Reducing functions leads to an improvement in battery life, reliability, and the consistency of the user experience, and at the same time lowers the learning curve for users. In this way, the product can more easily penetrate into a certain niche market and establish a closer bond with users.

From an industry perspective, this trend really promotes smart glasses to enter the phase of "in - depth development of scenarios". Ultimately, the real difference does not lie in the number of functions, but in whether one can grasp the core requirements of users and use limited resources in a targeted way. For consumers, this pragmatism is the key to making the entire category mature.

AR display and diverse interactions may become the standard

If subtraction is the breakout strategy of manufacturers in niche scenarios, then there is a greater consensus in the industry in the general product line: "Addition" - With waveguide technology and diverse interaction methods, the weaknesses of smart glasses in interaction should be compensated.

For example, many brands presented their products based on the "AR1 scheme" at the CES 2025. But at the IFA 2025, six months later, these traditional "AR1 recording glasses" can no longer attract the attention of professional users. On the contrary, the waveguide products, which seemed simple and plain at the beginning of the year, are now the "guests of honor" in the smart glasses exhibition hall.

Source: Live photos from Lei Technology

For example, the well - known brand Rokid presented its latest AR waveguide smart glasses Rokid Glasses in Europe for the first time. Different from the Ray - Ban Meta glasses, which are mainly based on voice interaction, the "waveguide + recording" interaction model of Rokid not only gives the glasses the ability of visual input (recording), but also compensates for the weakness in visual output (display). Naturally, due to the change to an AI model based on ChatGPT, there are some differences in the user experience between the overseas version of the Rokid Glasses and the Chinese version.

But both from the live experience of Lei Technology and the fact that there was a long queue in front of the Rokid stage, the waveguide display will inevitably become the next entry barrier for the category of high - quality smart glasses.

In addition, according to Lei Technology, the "interaction peripheral devices" of smart glasses will also become the next main battlefield in the category of smart glasses. In the previous comparison of smart glasses, Lei Technology mentioned that most glasses on the market can only enable "one - dimensional interaction". After all, the accuracy of the input unit on the temples of the glasses is limited and can only support simple gesture commands such as swiping forward and backward.

But obviously, this interaction model of rubbing the glasses temples back and forth can hardly be considered "passable" from the three aspects of interaction accuracy, user - friendliness, and perceptibility. So many brands at the IFA 2025 have begun to explore the corresponding interaction devices for the glasses.

Source: Live photos from Lei Technology

For example, the brand INMO has developed two different interaction models for its smart glasses INMO Air3: a small wireless touchpad and a smart ring device. The smart touchpad expands the traditional linear one - dimensional interaction to a two - dimensional planar interaction, while the smart ring device gives the Air3 the ability of spatial interaction. Precisely because of the innovation in the interaction method, the INMO Air3 can provide an efficient interaction experience similar to that of a tablet computer in the category of smart glasses.

Naturally, more diverse interaction models also bring greater technical challenges to the glasses. For example, the AR display module significantly shortens the battery life of the glasses. The spatial interaction of the smart ring device is not only more expensive, but also more difficult for fine manipulations.

But from a trend perspective, the manufacturers have reached a consensus: Without AR display or multimodal interactions, it will be difficult for smart glasses to gain a foothold. Just like the transition from feature phones to touch - screen smartphones, the AI glasses also need a "must - have feature" to achieve qualitative change. And in 2025, "interaction" is this must - have feature.

The improvement of the smart glasses ecosystems cannot be carried by the brands alone

If hardware innovations determine whether AI glasses are "usable", then the ecosystem development determines whether they are "easy to use" and "usable in the long term". Since most smart glasses are based on a customized "closed system", their functions only depend on "what the manufacturer offers". And currently, the smart glasses industry generally lacks imagination, so the available functions of current smart glasses products are limited to music playback, photography, navigation display, translation, and teleprompter.

Source: Live photos from Lei Technology

But users' expectations for smart glasses go far beyond that. So according to Lei Technology, the smart glasses industry must change the traditional "parental" development model in 2025 and attach importance to the promotion of the user community. The application ecosystem of smart glasses must be "built together".

Source: Live photos from Lei Technology

Let's take the INMO Air3 as an example again. Thanks to the 8 - core 4nm processor, the Air 3 has a hardware performance far above the average of its competitors. And INMO also knows how important user co - creation is. So INMO has opened the development tools and even the AI intelligent platform to the user community, so that professional users and the brand can build the application ecosystem of smart glasses together and explore the future development of smart glasses.

Compared with the method of going it alone, the method that starts from the users and allows users to decide which application scenarios are relevant is more likely to lead to a killer app that binds users in the long term.

Summary: Smart glasses enter a new phase of "seeking common ground while tolerating differences"

From the observations at the IFA 2025, it can be seen that the AI glasses industry enters a new phase. In the past, they were more regarded as experimental concept products. Now, three trends are becoming more and more obvious: AR and multimodal interactions will become the foundation of the industry, the idea of subtraction in niche scenarios shows a practical breakout path, and the ecosystem development determines whether the industry can move forward.

Naturally, compared with the already established consumer electronics products, smart glasses... (The original text seems incomplete here)