EcosystemPlatforms

Solos

Solos for third-party developers — SDK access, app model, distribution, capabilities & AI, and where it sits in the 2026 smart-glasses landscape.

Verified 2026-08-24 against primary sources

Solos at a glance
Third-party SDK
Paid public SDK, iOS+Androidsolosglasses.com
App model
Phone-companion peripheralsolosglasses.com
Distribution today
Your own app, normal storessolosglasses.com
Public publishing
Commercial apps allowedsolosglasses.com
Third-party UI on-lens
No on-lens displaysolosglasses.com
AI / assistant access
BYO-AI yes; assistant closedsolosglasses.com

Openness verdict. Open to build on (paid but public SDK, standard iOS/Android, commercial use allowed) with an unusual audio-first, no-HUD peripheral model; ship-time is wide open — your own app in the normal app stores, no vendor store or review gate. Access is purchase-based self-service — you buy the kit and SDK access is granted on purchase — with no application step and no invite-only partner gate.

Covered here: AirGo V2 · AirGo V / Krypton 2 (V1) · AirGo A5 · AirGo 3.

Not covered here: Legacy Solos cycling smartglasses (Kopin Pupil microdisplay HUD, shipped ~2018 out of a ~2015-16 Kickstarter era) · Kopin microdisplay/optics components · AirGo A6 (announced July 2026, not yet shipping).

Overview

Solos (Solos Technology Limited, spun out of micro-display maker Kopin) makes the AirGo line of consumer AI smart glasses positioned as everyday eyewear with hands-free AI. Two families are in scope: audio-only models (AirGo 3, AirGo A5 — "Hey Solos" voice AI, directional open-ear speakers, IP54, ~10 h audio / 7 h calls, no camera, A5 coverage) and camera models (AirGo V / Krypton 2, and AirGo V2 with a 16MP EIS camera, 2K/30fps video recording and low-power Wi-Fi live streaming, V2 debut). Hardware snapshot: open-ear speakers + mic array, motion sensor + e-compass, capacitive touch on the temple, modular "SmartHinge" frames with swappable frame fronts across the line (the electronics live in the temples; an electronics-only Temple Kit is sold for A5 only); camera on the V-series only; no on-lens display/HUD anywhere in the AirGo line — output is audio (and camera capture for the app), not visual overlay. Compute is peripheral/phone-companion — the glasses pair to a phone; there is no standalone on-glasses app runtime.

Shipping: all four in scope are shipping; AirGo V2 launched at CES 2026.

Price: A5 ~$249, V2 from $299 (Android Central); the SDK dev kit is a separate $1,999 purchase.

Regions: direct-webstore availability worldwide, with physical retail only in Hong Kong, Japan and Malaysia — Europe, North America, the Middle East and South America are all still listed "Coming Soon" on the vendor's Retail Shop page (worldwide retail availability for AirGo V2 was announced in July 2026), plus a European technology partnership with Deutsche Telekom (its AI services and cloud, showcased at Digital X).

What you can buy

ModelPriceStatus
Solos SDK Developer Program (the developer kit — the only way to obtain the SDK)
solosglasses.com
$1,999.00 (USD). The FAQ states "The SDK package costs USD 1,999.00"; the Developers page frames the same figure as "Early-bird price: US$1,999". Support and update renewal after year one is "50% of the SDK licensing cost per year" (FAQ wording); the product page defers the renewal figure to "specified in the Order".Sold, purchase gated
AirGo V2 (camera model — Prime 1 / Prime 2)
solosglasses.com
$299.00 (every variant of both Prime 1 and Prime 2 in the vendor store feed; vendor news posts use the wording "starting at $299")On sale
AirGo V / V1 (camera model — Krypton 1 / Krypton 2)
solosglasses.com
$299.00 standard (Krypton 1 and Krypton 2, all variants). Separate "(Rush Order)" photochromic listings at $338.90.On sale
AirGo A5 (audio model, 5th generation — Hydro collection)
solosglasses.com
$249.00 (Hydro X, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14) and $349.00 (Hydro 15, titanium premium edition)On sale
AirGo 3 (audio model, 3rd generation — Argon / Xeon / Helium collections)
solosglasses.com
$199.00 (USD, solosglasses.com direct; Xeon 5, Xeon 5S Photochromic, Xeon 6, Xeon 7, Helium 1, Helium 2 Asian-Fit). Higher AirGo 3 frames: $249.00 (Argon 7/8/X/11/12/13/14, Argon X Photochromic) and $299.00 (Argon 4S, Argon 6S, Argon X ZEISS). $199.00 is the cheapest complete AirGo glasses variant in the entire Solos store across all 1,236 published products.On sale
AirGo A6 (announced, camera-free)
source
Not published. No price appears on any solosglasses.com page or in the vendor store feed.Announced, not available

Cheapest way to run your own code: The only published way to obtain the Solos SDK is the $1,999.00 SDK Developer Program, which bundles the licence with two pairs of glasses — there is no evaluation, indie, student or SDK-only tier. The $199.00 AirGo 3 frames are SDK-supported, so the hardware is not the barrier; the licence is, and no Solos model has an on-lens display, HUD or waveguide, so SDK output is open-ear audio only.

What the listings leave out

Solos SDK Developer Program (the developer kit — the only way to obtain the SDK)

  • Single SKU with one variant (Default Title).
  • The "Early-bird price" framing on the Developers page means $1,999.00 is promotional rather than a settled list price, so it could move without a public changelog.
  • Renewal is quoted as a percentage (50% per year) rather than a figure, and the product page points to the Order document instead, leaving the FAQ as the only citable source for the percentage.
  • The storefront product is live (available, single Default Title variant, published 2026-01-05), but the program page asks applicants to describe their intended development project and confirm technical capability, so purchase follows a light application step rather than plain self-checkout.

AirGo V2 (camera model — Prime 1 / Prime 2)

  • Two fit/frame styles at the same price across six colourways, all Blue Blocker lens.
  • V2 is priced identically to the older AirGo V (V1) at $299.00, so the store gives no price signal that V2 is the newer, more capable generation, and a buyer scanning prices alone could order a V1 by mistake.
  • Vendor marketing says "starting at $299", but every listed V2 variant is exactly $299.00 in the store feed as of 2026-07-30; the "starting at" phrasing does not correspond to a higher-priced V2 tier that currently exists.
  • Only two frame models exist (Prime 1 and Prime 2) and each is locked to one size band — L/XL or S/M respectively — so fit, not preference, decides which frame you get.
  • Live streaming rides Wi-Fi rather than Bluetooth, and the per-frame latency and frame-rate grain available to third-party code via the Photo Streaming API is not published, so real-time AI feasibility cannot be judged from the spec sheet.
  • The LED Notification API is listed on the Developers page as "COMING SOON" — announced but unshipped.
  • No standalone camera Temple Kit is sold, so unlike the audio line there is no cheaper electronics-only upgrade path; only the complete pair.
  • Camera-model frame fronts cost more as spares ($149.00 for Krypton fronts) than audio-model fronts ($89–$105).

AirGo V / V1 (camera model — Krypton 1 / Krypton 2)

  • Two frame models covering seven standard Blue Blocker colourways plus seven photochromic Rush Order colourways.
  • V1 carries the same $299.00 price as the newer, more capable AirGo V2, with no discount for the older generation and no published end-of-life or superseded notice, so both generations sit in the store at the same price.
  • The "(Rush Order)" listings are a distinct pricing tier at $338.90 — roughly $40 above standard — for photochromic lenses, and the listing does not explain what "Rush Order" changes about fulfilment, so the premium could be the lens upgrade or an expedited build.
  • Availability is split within that Rush Order tier: all four Krypton 2 Rush Order variants show as unavailable in the vendor feed while all three Krypton 1 Rush Order variants are available. This is a stock condition, not a stated discontinuation.
  • V1's exact camera resolution is not stated on the vendor product pages; it is characterised only by contrast with V2's 16MP-plus-EIS upgrade.
  • Solos states "V2 maintains 100% of V1 APIs", so code written against V1 should carry forward, but the reverse is not true — V2-only APIs such as Wi-Fi Connection and the newer additions will not run on V1.
  • Replacement frame fronts for these models are $149.00, the most expensive front in the audio and camera line apart from the titanium Hydro 15.

AirGo A5 (audio model, 5th generation — Hydro collection)

  • Eight frame models across the Hydro collection, 23 colour/size variants in total (Hydro X/7/8/11/12/13/14 at three each, Hydro 15 at two), all Blue Blocker lens in sizes M/L.
  • The $100 spread inside one model is a frame-material difference, not a capability one: the Hydro 15 is "solos' first titanium smartglasses" at $349.00 with identical electronics to the $249.00 Hydro frames, so $349 buys titanium, not more SDK surface.
  • No A5 frame has a camera, so a developer reading only "Solos smart glasses, $249" and planning vision features has bought the wrong line.
  • A5 is priced above several AirGo 3 frames at $199.00 that are equally SDK-supported, so it is not the cheapest supported entry despite being the newer audio generation.
  • The "Hey Solos" wake word and the first-party SolosChat assistant are reserved by Solos and are not third-party extension points; your own voice triggers go through the Voice Command API and your own app logic.
  • The spare titanium frame front for the Hydro 15 is $179.00, and its listing warns "*Temples are not included."
  • AI inference is cloud-side: the glasses are a capture and output peripheral with no on-device model runtime.

AirGo 3 (audio model, 3rd generation — Argon / Xeon / Helium collections)

  • Six product listings sit at the $199.00 tier, differing by colour, lens, fit and SmartHinge generation; frame fronts sell separately at $89.00 and clip-on prescription lenses at $75.00.
  • A live but unlinked "VISON EXPO 2026 Special Offer" (handle visionexpo-2026-special-kit, published 2026-03-06) sells Xeon, Helium and Nitron variants at $129.35, a flat 65% of the $199.00 list. It reads as a trade-show order SKU rather than retail — variant SKUs are mido2026-argon and mido2026-argon-6s (MIDO Milan optical show), every variant is requires_shipping:false with inventory_management:null, the options include a $50.00 Deposit and a $120.00 retail Music Display Stand, description, tags and type are empty, and the product is in none of the store's 51 collections. It is nonetheless add-to-cart-able by direct URL with no login or trade gate and Solos publishes no eligibility text, so a determined buyer could transact at $129.35; the floor is recorded as $199.00 with this noted.
  • Solos leaves show SKUs published long after the event: "Ceatec 2024 - Xeon 7 Smartglasses" (published 2024-10-09) is still available today at the full $199.00 with requires_shipping:true.
  • Xeon 6 and Xeon 7 ship SmartHinge with a Notification LED that Xeon 5 lacks — a hardware difference at the same $199.00 and the same availability. The matching LED Notification API is listed "COMING SOON" on the Developers page, so there is no developer-reachable capability split today.
  • Add-to-cart is live and JSON-LD reports InStock, but colourway-level stock is mixed: Xeon 5 shows 4 of its 9 colour/hinge variants InStock and 5 OutOfStock.

AirGo A6 (announced, camera-free)

  • No frames, colours or sizes have been published.
  • No vendor primary source covers this model; every detail here comes from third-party reporting rather than vendor documentation.
  • There is no price, ship date, pre-order or store listing as of 2026-07-30.
  • It is not named in the SDK's supported-model list, so even after it ships, SDK support is an assumption rather than a stated commitment.
  • It is reported as camera-free, meaning it would not extend the platform's capability surface — it would be another audio-only, display-free model.
  • It was announced alongside a Privacy Kit (reported at $39 / $49 / $79) and SolosChat 4.0, and none of these appear on the vendor store or blog either, leaving the whole announcement cluster without primary-source confirmation.

Access

Solos runs a formal, paid, publicly-purchasable SDK program — the Solos Smartglasses SDK (Developers page, SDK Developer Program).

Languages/platformsNative iOS and Android only — no Unity, Flutter, or web SDK is offered (the glasses are a BLE/Wi-Fi peripheral to a phone app)
MaturityGA/commercial, single codebase across models with V2 adding new APIs (Wi-Fi Connection, Voice Command, Low Power Mode, Firmware Update; LED Notification listed "coming soon")
Who can buildThere is no invite-only or partner-approval gate and no application step — access is frictionless paid self-signup: you buy the kit from the Solos store and SDK access is provided on purchase (SDK Terms 4.1). The project/capability language is a contractual representation accepted at checkout, not a screening step before it
CostA $1,999 kit bundling two pairs of glasses (one audio + one camera model), one year of Zendesk support + software updates, and a bulk-purchase discount (FAQ). Renewal for continued support/updates is 50%/yr; the license itself is perpetual for the version received
LicenseProprietary, non-exclusive, non-transferable. You may build and sell commercial apps but only ones that "work only with Solos Smartglasses," and you may not redistribute the SDK itself (Solos-designated redistributable runtime components may ship inside your app) or reverse-engineer it except where law permits, while publishing benchmark/test results, using SDK Data to build competing products, and using it to train or fine-tune machine-learning models for distribution or resale each require Solos's prior written consent — an AI-scoped restriction that carries weight given these are camera/mic capture glasses feeding exactly that kind of pipeline (SDK Terms, FAQ). Not OSS
DocsDistributed with the kit (API spec PDFs); no full public API reference, though Solos links a downloadable V2 API specs PDF from the Developers page — inquiries to sdk@solosglasses.com

App model

Where code runs: on the phone — this is a phone-companion architecture.

The division of labourThe glasses are a Bluetooth LE (control) + Wi-Fi (V2 camera/video data) peripheral; your native iOS/Android app holds the logic and talks to the glasses through the SDK. There is no on-glasses app store or standalone runtime and no web/engine target
TransportBLE for control/audio/sensors across all models; Wi-Fi added on V2 for low-power live video streaming
The vendor's own appSolos ships a first-party Solos AirGo companion app (App Store since 2020) — the consumer host for SolosChat, voice search/translation, and "Whisper Messages / Whisper Events" (auto read-aloud of texts, WhatsApp, Teams, calendar). Critically, that official app is closed to plugins: there is no app-within-app extension model, so a third-party developer ships a separate, standalone phone app (a distinct App Store / Play listing) against the SDK — not an add-in inside AirGo
A second build pathBeyond the native app SDK, Solos exposes an automation/integration surfacewebhook / RTMP endpoints and ready-to-use n8n automation templates so captured audio/video/sensor data can be piped to your cloud or no-code workflows without a full mobile build. Solos advertises these for the capture → parse → route path, wiring glasses capture into tools like Google Sheets, HubSpot and email with no custom backend and no mobile build at all, though it no longer publishes a named sample template on the Developers page. It's the closest thing to a genuine second build path — a no-code route where you never touch the iOS/Android SDK

Fit with Extentos's phone-companion model: strong conceptual match — like Meta's DAT, Solos is a phone-tethered peripheral where the app runs on the phone and subscribes to capture/audio/sensor primitives. The divergences are that Solos is audio-first with no display surface to render to, its SDK is paid + proprietary + iOS/Android-native (no cross-platform layer), and camera streaming rides Wi-Fi rather than BLE.

Distribution

Because the app is an ordinary phone app, distribution is via the normal Apple App Store / Google Play channels you already own.

Solos-side gateNone — Solos operates no on-device app store, no release-channel invite system, and no submission/review gate of its own
Public publishingOpen: developers "may create and release commercial applications" provided they are designed to work only with Solos glasses (FAQ)
Vendor conditionsContractual, not gatekeeping: products must carry the attribution "Powered by Solos SDK. Designed for use with Solos Smartglasses.", co-marketing needs prior written approval, and you may not publish test/benchmark results without consent (SDK Terms)
Content reviewNone by Solos. Apple/Google review still applies to your app
Preview→GA gating/timelinen/a — there is no staged rollout program; once you have the kit you ship on your own schedule through your own store listing

Capabilities, limits & AI

Camera (V / V2 only; audio models have none): photo capture and video, exposed as distinctly named APIs — a Photo Taking API and a Photo Streaming API, both listed as V1 camera primitives, with Solos stating V2 maintains 100% of V1 APIs and adds 16MP + electronic image stabilization with 2K/30fps video recording and live streaming over low-power Wi-Fi; a Voice Command API and app control can trigger capture (Developers page). The documented Photo Streaming API is the frame-stream primitive, so continuous frame access is a named capability, not merely implied — the exact per-frame grain/latency for real-time AI still isn't published, but the surface itself is documented.

CapabilityThird-party access
Microphone/audio captureYes — an Audio Input API exposes the mic array to the app.
Audio output/TTSYes — an Audio Output API drives the open-ear directional speakers (the primary output channel; enhanced-bass, low-leakage).
On-lens display/UInone — no HUD/waveguide on any AirGo model; you cannot render visual UI on the glasses, only audio out + camera in. This is the sharpest limit vs. display-class glasses.
SensorsMotion Sensor API (IMU) and E-Compass API; location comes from the paired phone, not the glasses.
InputCapacitive Glasses Touch API (temple tap/swipe) plus voice; no controller or neural band.
Reserved surfacesThe "Hey Solos" wake word and the SolosChat first-party assistant are Solos-owned; firmware/LED/low-power are managed via dedicated APIs.
AI & the assistantSolos ships a first-party assistant, SolosChat 4.0, that itself routes to multiple LLM providers (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, DeepSeek) for multimodal image/video/audio/text assistance (V2 announcement). For third-party developers the assistant is not an open extension point — you don't plug into SolosChat; instead you bring your own AI by building your own app that pulls camera/audio/sensor data through the SDK (or via the webhook/RTMP/n8n path) and calls whatever model/cloud you choose. Voice invocation of your own app beyond the reserved "Hey Solos" trigger goes through the Voice Command API / your app's own logic. AI inference is cloud-side, not on-device (the glasses are a capture/output peripheral). The Envision accessibility integration and a Hong Kong PolyU speech-therapy pilot are cited BYO-AI examples.

Roadmap

  • Recent (dated): AirGo A5 + AirGo V2 first unveiled mid-2025 (pre-orders/Q3 2025 for A5 at ~$249); AirGo V2 formally launched at CES 2026 (January 2026) at $299 with the 16MP EIS camera, live FHD Wi-Fi streaming, SolosChat 3.0, and an expanded SDK; a charging case (1,100mAh) now planned for August 2026.
  • 2026-07-15: at its third annual AI Smartglasses Symposium in Hong Kong, Solos announced the camera-free AirGo A6, a Privacy Kit ($39/$49/$79), worldwide retail availability for AirGo V2, and SolosChat 4.0.
  • SDK momentum: V2 added Wi-Fi Connection, Voice Command, Low Power Mode, and Firmware Update APIs while keeping 100% of the V1 API surface; an LED Notification API is still listed "coming soon" on the Developers page.
  • Partnerships signaling direction: Deutsche Telekom (Digital X showcase, Sep 2025), Envision (accessibility), Hong Kong PolyU (speech-therapy pilot).
  • Publishing timeline: n/a in the vendor-store sense — distribution is already open via standard app stores.
  • Overall momentum: active and accelerating on the audio+camera consumer line, but still a small vendor; there is no announced move toward an on-lens display or a standalone on-glasses runtime.

In the landscape

Solos 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.

The third-party smart-glasses landscape

Can you build third-party apps for smart glasses today? A platform-by-platform comparison — Meta, Snap Spectacles, Brilliant Labs, Rokid, RayNeo, Even Realities, Vuzix, Android XR, Apple and more: which have an official SDK, how apps are built and distributed, and whether you can publish publicly.

How open is smart-glasses development?

A mental model for the openness spectrum in smart-glasses development — SDK availability, license, build-time gating, and publishing gating — with today's platforms placed on it.

AI on smart glasses

How third-party AI works across smart-glasses platforms — which first-party assistants are reserved (Meta AI, Gemini, Ari), where you bring your own AI (phone-side, cloud, on-device), wake-word limits, and the voice-in → AI → voice-out surface that generalizes even where the assistant is closed.

How third-party smart-glasses apps are distributed

Smart glasses don't have one app store. The app-model taxonomy — companion mobile app vs. an app that runs on the glasses (native or web) — and why a single platform (Meta) offers two entirely separate developer systems: DAT and Ray-Ban Display Web Apps.

Meta smart glasses (Meta DAT)

Meta smart glasses developer guide: Wearables Device Access Toolkit (DAT 0.8.0) capabilities, supported models (Ray-Ban Meta, Oakley Meta, Ray-Ban Display), 2026 distribution state, and how Extentos abstracts the toolkit.

Capabilities

The Extentos capability vocabulary — the vendor-agnostic SDK primitives (audio, camera, voice, assistant, display, hardware events) your handler subscribes to.