Solos

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 with a light application step (describe your project, confirm technical capability), not an 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.

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 and low-power Wi-Fi live Full HD streaming, V2 debut). Hardware snapshot: open-ear speakers + mic array, motion sensor + e-compass, capacitive touch on the temple, modular "SmartHinge" frames with swappable battery temples on V2; 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: US direct sales plus EU presence (Deutsche Telekom partnership); global availability not fully enumerated.

Access

Solos runs a formal, paid, publicly-purchasable SDK program — the Solos Smartglasses SDK (Developers page, SDK Developer Program). Languages/platforms: native iOS and Android only — no Unity, Flutter, or web SDK is offered (the glasses are a BLE/Wi-Fi peripheral to a phone app). Maturity: GA/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 build: there is no invite-only or partner-approval gate — access is purchase-based — but it is not frictionless self-signup: the SDK Developer Program page asks applicants to describe their intended Development Project and confirm they have the technical capability to integrate, so a light application step precedes the $1,999 kit. That kit bundles 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. License: proprietary, 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, reverse-engineer it, publish benchmark/test results without written consent, or use it for unauthorized data collection — a privacy-scoped restriction that carries weight given these are camera/mic capture glasses where data collection is the core use case (SDK Terms, FAQ). Not OSS. Docs: distributed with the kit (API spec PDFs); no fully public online API reference — inquiries to developers@solosglasses.com.

App model

Where code runs: on the phone — this is a phone-companion architecture. The 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. Note also that Solos ships its own first-party Solos AirGo companion app (App Store since 2019) — 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. Transport: BLE for control/audio/sensors across all models; Wi-Fi added on V2 for low-power live video streaming. Multiple dev systems: beyond the native app SDK, Solos exposes an automation/integration surface — webhook / 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. This is more concrete than a generic "we have webhooks": Solos ships a named, turnkey template — the "Visitor Pipeline Manager" — that wires glasses photo capture straight into Google Sheets, HubSpot, and email with no custom backend and no mobile build at all (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 operates no on-device app store, no release-channel invite system, and no submission/review gate of its own. Public publishing is open: developers "may create and release commercial applications" provided they are designed to work only with Solos glasses (FAQ). The only vendor-imposed conditions are contractual, not gatekeeping: products must carry the attribution "powered by Solos SDK and 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 review: none by Solos (Apple/Google review still applies to your app). Preview→GA gating/timeline: n/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 live Full HD 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. Microphone/audio capture: yes — an Audio Input API exposes the mic array to the app. Audio output/TTS: yes — an Audio Output API drives the open-ear directional speakers (the primary output channel; enhanced-bass, low-leakage). On-lens display/UI: none — 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. Sensors: Motion Sensor API (IMU) and E-Compass API; location comes from the paired phone, not the glasses. Input: capacitive Glasses Touch API (temple tap/swipe) plus voice; no controller or neural band. Reserved surfaces: the "Hey Solos" wake word and the SolosChat first-party assistant are Solos-owned; firmware/LED/low-power are managed via dedicated APIs. AI & the assistant: Solos ships a first-party assistant, SolosChat 3.0, 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) slated for Q2 2026. 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 announced-but-unshipped ("coming soon"). 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.

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