Even Realities

Openness verdict. Build-time openness is real but multi-track. For the G2, Even ships a genuine public web/TypeScript SDK (Even Hub) — but first-party developer onboarding is application-gated (a pilot/early-access program) and ship-time publishing goes through an Even-run, manually-reviewed app store. Separately, a mature open-source third-party OS/SDK (MentraOS) officially supports BOTH G1 and G2 with no Even pilot gate and no Even store review, and an active raw-BLE community drives both models directly — so the ungated developer path is broader than the official channel alone implies. The older G1 has no first-party SDK or store, but it is reachable via MentraOS, an official BSD-licensed protocol demo, and mainstream tools like Gadgetbridge.

Covered here: Even G1 (2024 HUD glasses) · Even G2 (Nov 2025 HUD glasses).
Not covered here: Even R1 smart ring.

Overview

Even Realities is a Shenzhen/US eyewear startup making discreet, prescription-friendly HUD glasses — monochrome green heads-up displays in a normal-looking frame, deliberately no camera and no speaker (privacy positioning against Ray-Ban Meta). Two in-scope models: the G1 (2024; ~44 g; 640×200 green, reportedly ~20 Hz refresh, ~25° FOV, mic array, no camera) and the G2 (announced/shipped Nov 12 2025; ~36 g titanium/magnesium; dual micro-LED, ~576×288 px per eye per Even's docs — some outlets cite 640×350 — 60 Hz, up to 1,200 nits, ~27.5° FOV, four-mic array, no camera, no speaker). Both are peripheral displays paired to a phone over Bluetooth LE (5.4 on G2, up from 5.2 on the G1); on-board compute is display/firmware only (LVGL rendering), not standalone. Both retail $599; the optional R1 control ring is $249 (out of scope as an accessory). Audio output routes through the phone, not the glasses. Sources: G2 overview (Even Hub docs), G2 launch (9to5Google), G2 engineering blog (Bluetooth 5.4), G1 review (Engadget), evenrealities.com.

Access

G2 has a real, official developer platform — Even Hub. The SDK is a web/TypeScript kit published to npm (@evenrealities/even_hub_sdk) with a CLI (@evenrealities/evenhub-cli) and a local simulator (@evenrealities/evenhub-simulator); the bundle is documented in the official everything-evenhub (MIT) repo with evenhub-templates (MIT, TypeScript) starter scaffolds. You build in plain HTML/CSS/JS or TypeScript, any stack (Vite/React) — there is no proprietary language or engine. Docs live at hub.evenrealities.com/docs. Maturity: the store and platform publicly launched April 3 2026; docs currently say you can "Build plugins for the Even G2. Widgets, dashboards, and AI skills are next" — i.e. plugins are GA-ish, other surfaces are roadmap. Who can build (first-party): access is application-gated via the Even Hub Pilot / Early-Access program — you apply at evenhub.evenrealities.com; Even reviews the first batch within ~10 business days, with an explicitly low bar ("no strict technical or experience barriers") (Android Authority, Pilot Program support article). No developer fee is documented; SDK tooling and templates are MIT/BSD-2-Clause open source. A second, ungated developer track exists. MentraOS (by Mentra, the platform formerly known as AugmentOS) is a full open-source, cross-vendor smart-glasses OS + TypeScript cloud SDK whose supported-glasses list officially includes both Even G1 and G2 (alongside Mentra Live, Vuzix Z100, and NIMO): you write one app that runs phone-side in the Mentra Runtime and drives display/mic over the glasses' BLE link — with no Even pilot gate and no Even store review. There is also an active raw-BLE community for the G2 that bypasses Even Hub entirely — e.g. i-soxi/even-g2-protocol documents the G2 service UUIDs, 7-packet auth handshake, CRC-16/CCITT framing and protobuf payloads (with working teleprompter/calendar/notification demos), and MentraOS's own G2.kt is the widely-ported reference BLE implementation. G1 has no first-party SDK or program, but it is far from closed: Even ships an official EvenDemoApp (BSD-2-Clause) reference for the raw dual-BLE protocol (LC3 audio, 1-bit 576×136 BMP image packets), MentraOS supports G1, and the mainstream open-source Android companion app Gadgetbridge has explicit Even Realities (G1) support — so third parties reach the G1 despite the missing first-party SDK.

App model

Phone-companion web model. A G2 app ("plugin") is a web app whose code runs off-glasses — loaded in a WebView hosted by the Even Realities companion app on the paired phone (community docs describe the frontend loading in the iPhone Even App's WebView, with the app free to fetch from its own server backend). The glasses are a thin display+input client: the SDK sends layout/UI commands that the glasses render via LVGL v9 firmware, and relays mic audio, touchpad/ring input, IMU and device status back — all over Bluetooth LE. Standard browser APIs (fetch, Canvas) are available because the runtime is a WebView. There is no native on-glasses app runtime and no Unity/engine path; it is web-only. This maps cleanly onto Extentos's phone-companion framing (phone mediates a peripheral display), with the key difference that Even's contract is a web/WebView + LVGL rendering pipeline rather than a native Android/iOS SDK, and Even ships no camera/speaker to drive. Sources: Even Hub overview, awesome-even-realities-g2, SDK feature notes (zenn).

Distribution

G2 ships through Even Hub, Even Realities' own on-device app store. Users browse and install apps over-the-air from an "Apps"/Even Hub tab inside the Even Realities mobile companion app (also surfaced via a tab in the Even online shop); no cable or sideload needed for end users. Developer publishing: you package the app (.ehpk/.ehp code package) with the CLI / even-publisher and upload it through the Even Hub Developer Portal; for local testing you scan a QR code in the app's Developer Center to sync a build to the glasses. Publishing is gated two ways: (1) developer access itself is via the application/pilot review above, and (2) apps are submitted to Even's store rather than self-hosted — so Even is the gatekeeper/curator (the April 3 2026 launch shipped a curated set of ~50 apps). Even does publish a detailed content-review policy: the App Submission & QA Guidelines mandate a manual review against a rejection-note checklist — package/manifest rules (reverse-domain ID, edition string, name ≤20 chars and must not contain "Even"), branding/screenshot-accuracy rules, functionality requirements (end-to-end on glasses+ring, 2-minute idle liveness, double-tap shutdown), and content restrictions (no medical diagnosis, financial advice, emergency-routing, or NSFW/hateful content). A formal preview→GA promotion timeline/SLA is still not documented. Store publishing is not the only distribution path, though: because the G2 speaks an open BLE protocol, a developer can drive it directly from their own host/agent — gpsnmeajp/men-g2-ble-gateway is a Python gateway (its BLE layer ported from MentraOS's G2.kt) that bridges the glasses to HTTP, WebSocket, MCP and a local browser UI, i.e. a concrete self-hosted, no-store way to ship G2 functionality. G1 has no store or official distribution path — anything on G1 is a private/community app talking to the raw BLE protocol. Sources: Even Hub launch (AndroidGuys), App Submission & QA Guidelines, Even Hub.

Capabilities, limits & AI

Camera: none on either device — Even ships no camera by design; a G2 plugin can request access to the phone's camera/album via SDK plugins with user permission, but there is no glasses-camera photo/video/frame API. Microphone/audio capture: yes — G2 exposes the four-mic array as PCM 16 kHz mono 16-bit streams (G1 streams LC3 over BLE). Audio output/TTS: the glasses have no speaker; any voice output must route through the paired phone. On-lens display/UI: yes — monochrome green HUD; you render via SDK layout primitives (text containers up to ~1–2k chars, lists, images max ~200×100 px, ~4 per page) compiled to LVGL on-glasses, with full-rebuild and flicker-free partial-update paths. Limits: no font-size API, no official animation API. Sensors: IMU/accelerometer at selectable intervals (100/500/1000 ms); no dedicated on-glasses GPS — location comes from the phone bridge and (per a developer) location permission only works for store-installed apps, not QR sideload. Key-value string storage persists across reboot. Input: left/right temple touchpads (press/swipe/double-press) plus the optional R1 ring. Reserved surfaces: Even's own first-party apps are the reserved surfaces on both models — Even AI (tap-to-talk assistant), real-time Translation (~35 languages), Teleprompter (AI/Manual/Automatic scroll modes), Notes/QuickNotes, Navigation, and the Dashboard/notification HUD (Even Realities smart glasses); the SDK exposes no wake-word/gesture-system hook, so third-party plugins cannot hook the assistant/wake path. AI & the assistant: there is no first-party platform assistant open to third parties — "AI skills" is an announced-but-unshipped roadmap surface. The practical path is bring-your-own-AI: because plugins are WebView apps with fetch, developers wire their own STT (Deepgram/Soniox/browser ASR) and LLM (Claude/OpenAI/Gemini) directly; there is no on-device AI. The BYO-AI framing is a direct consequence of that reserved assistant surface. Sources: SDK feature verification (zenn), Even Hub overview, Even Realities smart glasses, awesome-even-realities-g2.

Roadmap

Recent, dated: G2 hardware announced and on sale Nov 12 2025 (9to5Google); Even Hub Pilot Program applications opened in early 2026 (Android Authority); Even Hub store + developer platform publicly launched April 3 2026 with ~50 launch apps and a claimed 2,000+ developer waitlist (AndroidGuys). Announced but unshipped: the docs explicitly flag widgets, dashboards, and AI skills as "next" (plugins are the only live first-party surface today). Momentum: high and improving — a real npm-published SDK/CLI/simulator, active first-party templates and demos, a documented app-QA policy, and an established store, all within ~months, plus an independent open-source track (MentraOS) that already ships to both G1 and G2. Gating that remains: first-party developer entry still runs through an application/review funnel rather than fully open self-serve, and a formal app-review SLA / preview→GA promotion timeline is not public (though the QA content policy itself is documented). G1 is effectively legacy for Even's own tooling (no roadmap toward an official SDK), but stays developer-reachable through MentraOS, the BSD protocol demo, and Gadgetbridge.

In the landscape

Even Realities is one platform in the third-party smart-glasses landscape. See how open it is relative to other platforms, how AI works across them, and the full platform comparison.

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