---
title: The third-party smart-glasses landscape
seoTitle: Third-party smart glasses in 2026 — the developer landscape
description: "Can you build third-party apps for smart glasses today? A platform-by-platform comparison of Meta, Android XR, Mentra, Even Realities, and Apple: which have an official SDK, how apps are distributed, and whether you can publish publicly."
type: overview
platform: all
related:
  - /docs/ecosystem/distribution
  - /docs/vendors
  - /docs/vendors/meta
  - /docs/concepts/capabilities
---

"Can I build a third-party app for smart glasses?" has a different answer on every platform, and the answers move quarter to quarter. This is the neutral, dated map: which platforms expose an official developer SDK, what shape a third-party app takes on each, how it reaches real users, and whether public publishing is open yet. It's the landscape view — for the per-platform deep dives (capabilities, setup, distribution mechanics), follow through to the [vendor pages](/docs/vendors).

## The landscape at a glance

<PlatformMatrix />

Rows marked ⚠ are seeds pending verification — the non-Meta platforms move fast and are documented from public signals, not first-hand shipping experience. Meta is the row we build on daily, so it's the most complete; see [Meta smart glasses](/docs/vendors/meta) for the full picture.

## The one distinction that explains most of it

The biggest source of confusion isn't capabilities — it's **app model**: *does your code run on the phone (with the glasses as a peripheral), or on the glasses themselves?* (A VR-style "headset app" — Android XR *headsets* like Project Moohan — is a separate device category, not smart glasses.)

- **Companion / extension app** (runs on the phone) — you extend an app that ships through an existing store; the glasses are camera/mic/speaker over Bluetooth. **Meta's DAT and Android XR** take this approach — which is *why* distribution on Meta is a two-part story (ship the app *and* get the user's glasses linked to it).
- **An app that runs on the glasses** — either a **native standalone** app (**Mentra, Even Realities**) or a **web app you deploy as a URL** (**Meta Ray-Ban Display Web Apps**, added via the Meta AI app's Connectors).

And a single platform can offer *both*: **Meta ships two entirely separate systems** — DAT (native companion, camera/audio, every model) and Display Web Apps (a web app running on the Ray-Ban Display). Most "why can't I just publish my glasses app to a store" questions dissolve once you see which system you're in. Full breakdown, including the Meta DAT-vs-Web-Apps split: [how third-party apps are distributed](/docs/ecosystem/distribution).

## What this means if you're deciding today

- **Building now, shipping to real users:** Meta is the only platform with shipping consumer hardware *and* a public third-party SDK. Distribution is invite-based (release channels) during the preview; public publishing is partner-gated but expected to broaden in 2026. Start at [Meta smart glasses](/docs/vendors/meta).
- **Standalone / open ecosystems:** Mentra and Even Realities run their own glasses-app ecosystems for a different audience (in the matrix above). Extentos doesn't ship transports for them today — complementary, not competing.
- **Forward-looking, same class as Meta:** Android XR ([tracking](/docs/vendors/android-xr)) is the other big platform building a third-party ecosystem, and Apple ([no SDK yet](/docs/vendors/apple)) — both worth watching, not yet building on.

Extentos's bet is that the *capability surface* (camera, voice, audio, display) generalizes across all of these even though the app models don't — so one app can target the platform that's open today and the platform that opens next with a config change, not a rewrite. That's the [vendor model](/docs/vendors).

## Related

- [How third-party smart-glasses apps are distributed](/docs/ecosystem/distribution) — the app-model taxonomy in depth
- [Vendors overview](/docs/vendors) — what Extentos supports, and the vendor-portability model
- [Meta smart glasses](/docs/vendors/meta) — the deep dive on the one shipping platform