Qualcomm Announces Smaller Snapdragon AR1+ Gen 1 Chip For Smart Glasses

At the Augmented World Expo (AWE) 2025 today, Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon AR1+ Gen 1 chip for smart glasses, while sharing its broader vision for the form factor.

In 2023, Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon AR1 Gen 1, which powers Ray-Ban Meta glasses. The chipmaker is now following that with the AR1+ Gen 1. With a 26% smaller package, you can expect an up to 20% temple height reduction for more compact glasses. Meanwhile, better power management means Bluetooth playback, video streaming, computer vision, and wake with voice are less intensive. 

The Snapdragon AR1+ Gen 1 also improves image quality, but Qualcomm is particularly highlighting the ability to run a small language model (SML) on-device. It demoed an assistant powered by Llama 1B where “AI inferencing [was] done on the glasses without relying on the cloud or an internet connection.”

The premise is simple: AI glasses are set to operate independently without needing to be paired with a smartphone or the cloud. In the near future, I will be able to leave my phone in my pocket or in the car and just wear my smart glasses during a supermarket run, as I showed off during my AWE demo.

However, Qualcomm does see smart glasses working with your other devices, while it’s particularly interested in how smartwatches and smart rings could “enable new modalities of input.” Besides gesture and 3DoF (rotational movements) control, they could provide motion tracking and health monitoring. 

Qualcomm also has the AR2 Gen 1 as its more premium glasses chip for immersive augmented experiences. For headsets, its lineup spans the XR1 Gen 1 to the XR2+ Gen 2.

Qualcomm reiterated its work with Google and Samsung on Android XR, and will be sharing how Snapdragon Spaces developers can create apps for the upcoming platform at AWE.

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