Scroll through your favorite video app and they’re everywhere: Point-of-view (POV) videos of everything from absurd pranks to impressive athletic feats, no camera in sight.
Welcome to the advent of smart glasses (also known as AI glasses), the wearable devices that combine familiar eyewear with filming, listening, recording, and AI capabilities.
Videos filmed from eyewear have taken over digital content creation, driving engagement and raising serious questions about consent in the process. From January 1 to September 28, 2026, the technology appeared in about 805,000 mentions across print, digital, and social media sources. However, the sentiment of that conversation flipped from largely positive to largely negative from the first half of the year to the second as consumers have increasingly focused their attention on the technology’s risks.
We used Social Listening to better understand the current smart glasses conversation and what it means for brands, marketers, and technology companies. Here are the biggest takeaways anyone interested in the topic should know.
Click here to view a one-page summary of our findings.
Table of contents:
Methodology
Smart glasses criticism peaked in August as consumer conversation grew.
Privacy and covert recording are now the leading smart glasses topics.
Smart glasses are scrutinized on Reddit and embraced on TikTok.
Creator content is mostly positive, but audience reactions are mixed.
Key takeaways
FAQ: Smart glasses sentiment, media coverage, and consumer conversation
Methodology
| Smart glasses analysis methodology | |
|---|---|
| Capability | Meltwater Social Listening |
| Analysis window | January 1 to September 28, 2026 |
| Data sources | Print and online news, forums, and 17 social media platforms, including Bluesky, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Reddit, Snapchat, TikTok, X, and YouTube |
| Keywords tracked | Smart glasses and related keywords, brands, and hashtags |
| Total number of posts analyzed | ~805,000 |
| Sample groups analyzed | The qualitative analysis covers two datasets: the top 1,000 posts by engagement, which shows what content captures the most attention, and 1,000 randomly selected posts, which provides a view of the broader everyday conversation. |
| Key term definitions | Engagement: The number of shares, comments, likes, retweets, replies, direct messages, etc. Post: A single piece of content that can include multiple mentions. Mentions: The number of instances in which keywords and phrases appeared within a post. Share of posts: The proportion of posts within our topic-coded, 2,000-post sample |
| Added data notes | Every post in both sample datasets was coded for its primary topic, brands mentioned, type of author driving the conversation, and stance toward smart glasses; these codes were then aggregated by month and dataset. September covers only September 1–28, so month-on-month comparisons slightly understate the full month. Sentiment is based on Meltwater's automated tone classification, applied consistently across all mentions. It is complemented by a read of the post sample, which adds context on tone in content such as sarcasm, humour, and prank videos. |
Smart glasses criticism peaked in August as consumer conversation grew.
This year, public conversation about smart glasses began with optimism. News media drove the conversation, with coverage focusing on company and business topics like product launches and market reports.
In particular, Meta, whose products were named in a stunning 64% of our sample posts, started the year off with a bang with its launch of new AI glasses features at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. At the time, positive sentiment outweighed negative sentiment by nearly 4 to 1.
A lot changed in the smart glasses discourse as we entered the second half of this year. Negative sentiment grew, spiking in August as higher proportions of consumers drove the conversation in our sample and discussed concerns with the technology. (More on that in the next section.)
So while sentiment was largely positive when news media was driving the smart glasses conversation, as consumers have gained share of voice, that initial optimism has tanked.
Privacy and covert recording are now the leading smart glasses topics.
From July to September, privacy concerns about smart glasses, particularly how they can be used to secretly film and harass people, became the leading topic in our sample of posts.
Collectively, they peaked at 58% share of posts in August, nearly triple what they were in January. The topic of privacy and covert recording specifically grew to a 25% share.
In that time, the nickname “pervert glasses” entered mainstream discourse. The word "perv" was absent from our sample before May, but appeared in 5% of July to September posts. This rising keyword signalled just how much negative sentiment around the devices’ controversial filming capabilities was extending to those who wear them.
Meanwhile, discussion of bans and regulation also tripled in share in our sample, comprising one in ten of all posts from July to September. That period included news of several high-profile bans that were passed or proposed, including those in Australia, the US, and the UK.
On the commercial side, some brands have turned the trending topic into a marketing hook. In August, internet privacy company and search engine DuckDuckGo released a collaboration with sunglasses brand Knockaround that it called “Normal F***ing Sunglasses.” The product listing touted: “These ‘smart’ glasses come with zero AI and zero cameras. Designed to block the sun, not send data to the cloud.” They reportedly sold out in one week.
Smart glasses are scrutinized on Reddit and embraced on TikTok.
About 30% of smart glasses posts were published on Reddit. There, sentiment towards the gadgets is 36% negative and only 10% positive, with conversation concentrated in subreddits like r/technology, r/gadgets, and r/news. In r/technology, two of the most engaged posts shared news articles about the privacy risks of smart glasses, specifically omnipresent surveillance and covert recording.
The same behaviors that consumers complain about on Reddit are the ones rewarded with engagement on TikTok, where prank, POV, and comedy clips comprise more than a third of the top 1,000 most engaged posts.
Instead of being the topic of conversation, as they are on Reddit, on TikTok, smart glasses deliver the content, textually indicated with hashtags like #raybanmeta.
With 71% share of engagement, TikTok was the primary platform where audiences interacted with smart glasses content. In our sample overall, covert prank and POV clips generated about 1.5 times more engagement than the average.
Creator content is mostly positive, but audience reactions are mixed.
Ray-Ban Meta’s campaigns with Kylie Jenner in June and Lisa in September drove the year’s biggest smart glasses brand moments, but about a third of posts mentioning them in our sample were negative or mixed. Lisa’s launch mostly drew fan disappointment, while criticism of Kylie's collection fell into three general themes: glamorizing surveillance, hypocrisy around privacy, and questioning the endorsement as a whole.
Apart from these campaigns, creators had their highest share of posts from May and June, just as public sentiment toward smart glasses appeared to be souring. Most were lifestyle creators filming hobbies, travel and sport, often as paid partners, with 69% of their posts being positive. A minority were critical of the technology, emerging as privacy-first advocates and offering guidance on how to protect yourself from being filmed covertly.
Key takeaways
Our analysis of both the overall conversation and our post samples surfaced these key points:
- Everyday consumers are now driving the narrative around smart glasses, not news media or brands.
- Consent is now the primary topical frame for smart glasses. Any related product, launch, or campaign story is now read through that lens.
- Covertly filmed content draws both criticism and engagement. Reddit is where consumers take their complaints and TikTok is where audiences interact with smart glasses-created content.
- Positive creator coverage hasn’t proven to be a proxy for audience acceptance. Brands should measure campaigns against the broader conversation, especially around concerns about privacy and surveillance.
For brands connected to smart glasses, consumer privacy, and even standard eyewear, staying ahead of the buzz around smart glasses will be crucial moving into 2027.
Use social and media intelligence to track sentiment shifts, identify emerging concerns, and understand how audiences respond to new products and campaigns. See how with a tour of the Social Listening capabilities we used to analyze this cultural moment.
FAQ: Smart glasses sentiment, privacy, and consumer conversation
How do people feel about smart glasses?
Public sentiment became increasingly negative during 2026. Meltwater Social Listening data shows that positive sentiment outweighed negative sentiment by nearly 4 to 1 early in the year, before criticism peaked in August as consumers played a larger role in the conversation.
What are the main concerns about smart glasses?
Privacy and covert recording are the leading concerns. According to Meltwater Social Listening analysis, privacy and covert recording accounted for 58% of sample posts in August, nearly triple their share in January.
Which platforms drive smart glasses conversation?
Reddit and TikTok drive different parts of the smart glasses conversation. Meltwater Social Listening data shows that Reddit accounted for about 30% of posts and featured criticism of surveillance and covert recording, while TikTok rewarded POV, prank, and comedy content filmed with smart glasses.
Does smart glasses content receive high engagement?
Covertly filmed POV and prank content generates above-average engagement. Meltwater Social Listening analysis of a 2,000-post sample found that these formats received about 1.5 times more engagement than the average post and made up more than one-third of the most-engaged TikTok content.
How are creators affecting smart glasses sentiment?
Creator content about smart glasses is mostly positive, but audience reactions are mixed. Meltwater Social Listening data shows that 69% of creator posts were positive, while reactions to major celebrity campaigns included criticism related to privacy, surveillance, women’s safety, and paid endorsements.
Why should brands monitor smart glasses conversation?
Brands connected to smart glasses and other wearable technology, standard eye wear, AI, and privacy need early visibility into changing public sentiment. Meltwater Social Listening helps teams understand how consumers respond to emerging technology and assess how product launches or creator campaigns are being received.
