The Greatest AR Flop Ever Is Again With a Pair of Good Glasses

If new {hardware} from Magic Leap was in your AR bingo card, congratulations, in the present day is your day. Seems the once-buzzy AR firm is again in a giant manner with a brand new prototype of AR smart glasses that’s being developed in tandem with Google, the tech firm that additionally made big promises with AR glasses and which also flopped hard. Whereas there isn’t a ton of knowledge on the prototype, there are some preliminary photos, they usually appear like what you’d anticipate from a contemporary pair of good glasses with a show, which is to say, so much just like the Meta Ray-Ban Display.

Magic Leap is partnering with expertise leaders to speed up their AR glasses roadmap by deep experience and applied sciences that ship visuals which are secure, crisp, and clear. This week at @FIIKSA , @magicleap and @Google are unveiling an AR glasses prototype constructed as a… pic.twitter.com/05bQCt0gQn

— Magic Leap (@magicleap) October 29, 2025

Whereas the brand new {hardware} might really feel prefer it’s coming from left area, Magic Leap and Google really announced a partnership last year, which they’re now renewing, given Google’s pointed curiosity in XR {hardware} and software program. The small print are nonetheless sparse, however most likely essentially the most telling part of Magic Leap’s announcement is that this one:

By combining Magic Leap’s waveguides and optics with Google’s Raxium microLED gentle engine, the 2 corporations are growing show applied sciences that make all-day, wearable AR extra achievable. Magic Leap’s gadget companies combine show {hardware} to make sure visuals are secure, crisp, and clear.

Seems to be like, whereas Magic Leap is specializing in the waveguides (the display contained in the good glasses), Google is specializing in software program, which isn’t stunning given the launch of Android XR, Google’s AR-focused platform that’s getting used on new headsets like Samsung’s Galaxy XR. What is possibly a little bit stunning is the truth that Magic Leap has entered the AR chat given its historical past of, properly… failing to do this in numerous methods.

Whereas Magic Leap was valued at an estimated $4.5 billion in 2016, the corporate really solely ever put out two actual AR headsets. First, there was the Magic Leap One in 2018, which was met with fairly widespread disappointment, and regardless of making its solution to retail through AT&T, by no means achieved any sort of mainstream success. The follow-up in 2022 was the $3,300 Magic Leap 2, which was much more area of interest, with an enterprise focus, and, to nobody’s shock, flopped equally as arduous as the corporate’s first endeavor. Magic Leap stopped supporting its first headset altogether almost a yr in the past in December 2024.

This, as you’ll have gleaned, is just not a stellar observe document, which ought to offer you some pause on whether or not Magic Leap can actually make issues work this time round. That being stated, regardless of Magic Leap’s failure to ship, numerous corporations with much less expertise and missing the assets of Google are managing to make AR glasses work, so possibly this is the second Magic Leap has been ready for. I wouldn’t put cash on it, however possibly, simply possibly, there’s an opportunity.

Unsurprisingly, there’s no launch date or something like that but, however Magic Leap plans to debut the AR glasses at FII, a convention for future tech that’s presently ongoing in Saudi Arabia. What do you assume? Are you taking the (magic) leap of religion this time?