Face computers just aren't going to be a thing, right?

Maybe I'll regret writing this one day, but it just kind of seems like face computers aren't something that are really going to happen, right? This blog is 16 years old, and for almost all 16 years there have been stories about how VR is "about to take off" and yet it still hasn't. Sure, prices have come down generally and the tech has gotten better, so more people have these headsets than ever before. But I feel like it only means there are more headsets in closets collecting dust, having not been used after the first month or so of ownership. Obviously, some people do use them on a regular basis, but it's absolutely not the mainstream thing that we keep thinking they're about to be.

Meanwhile, it's both better and worse for more subtle glasses with cameras. Google Glass was obviously mocked incessantly from the beginning and labeled "pervert glasses" on the spot. Years later, Meta found some pretty decent success with their Ray-Bans, although the narrative has shifted on those as well in 2026, and they are now also considered pervert glasses. And I don't think this has anything to do with the fact that they are a product made by Meta. People are creeped out not by the privacy policy of the company who makes them, but by the fact that they are subtle cameras that can be recording you at any time without you noticing.

We've seen a leaked video of AirPods with cameras in them, direct from Apple, and there are rumors that Apple is working on a pair of Meta Ray-Ban style glasses as well.

But I go back to the fact that this general category of technology has been trying to break into the mainstream for two decades or so, and the progress is brutal. Apple even got in the game two years ago and released a product that you might think would bring a category like this into the mainstream. But instead, as we sit here in 2026, we live in a timeline that would be exactly the same whether this product existed or not.

Maybe face computers are going to be a huge thing in the future, and maybe somehow AI is the unlock that suddenly makes these compelling in a way that hasn't made previous products compelling and simultaneously made them creepy. Otherwise, it just feels like a technology that we're building because we can, not because anyone in mass really wants it.

And to be clear, if this is destined to just be a niche product category that some people really adore, that's fine. I just think this constant push to make it the next smartphone is unlikely (to say the least) to be successful. Bookmark this for 2036 in case it finally happens.