Amazon plans AR glasses for you (and your delivery driver)

Amazon may soon add “AR glasses maker” to its résumé, right alongside “cloud giant,” “grocery store owner,” and “that place you panic-order batteries from at midnight.” 

According to The Information, Amazon is quietly cooking up a pair of augmented-reality glasses codenamed Jayhawk, which could feature a full-color display in one eye, plus the usual spy-movie toolkit: microphones, speakers, and even a camera.

If that sounds familiar, it’s because every tech giant is suddenly in the AR glasses race. 

Meta, for instance, is expected to show off its new Hypernova specs at its upcoming Connect event. 

Think Ray-Bans with superpowers: a small display in the right lens to flash mini apps and alerts. 

Meta’s also developing something fancier, dubbed Orion. Google, Samsung, and Snap? They’re all tinkering with headgear, too. 

Basically, your face is the new smartphone real estate, and everyone wants in.

For Amazon, though, this isn’t its first rodeo. The company already has its Echo Frames, which entered their third generation in 2023. 

But compared to Meta’s Ray-Bans, they feel more like a Bluetooth headset glued to glasses than the future of wearable tech. 

Jayhawk is supposed to change that narrative, with a consumer launch possibly landing in late 2026 or early 2027.

But before you start imagining Alexa floating in your field of vision while you shop on Prime Day, Amazon has a more practical rollout in mind. 

The company reportedly plans to build 100,000 units of a delivery-driver version of the glasses, codenamed Amelia. 

Unlike Jayhawk, Amelia is more “workhorse” than fashion statement: bulkier frames, a utilitarian display, and navigation tools to help drivers know which porch gets which package. 

Reuters even reported last year that the driver’s glasses would offer “turn-by-turn navigation on a small embedded screen.”

So, while Meta courts early adopters with sleek specs for selfies and notifications, Amazon’s first real audience might be the folks in blue vans dropping boxes at your doorstep.

Will Amazon’s practical approach of testing AR glasses with delivery drivers first give them a real-world advantage over Meta’s consumer-focused strategy? Do you think AR glasses will actually become mainstream wearables, or are we still years away from people being comfortable with cameras and displays on their faces all day? Tell us below in the comments, or reach us via our Twitter or Facebook.