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MentraOS – open-source Smart glasses OS
- arbayi 1y agoI just found out about them and it seems super good. I wonder why Meta doesn't support such a thing called "Meta Glasses Application Store"
- exe34 1y agoI'm more than happy to develop my own apps, but it doesn't appear that they support any one product with all the features yet.
- randomname4325 1y agobecause developers would immediately make ick apps that violate privacy or do black mirror type things that would kill any momentum
- SuperShibe 1y agoMeta is already doing that and they want all the cake for themselves
- asdev 1y agothis doesn't include AR right? it can't overlay stuff on what i'm seeing? if not, then it's pretty useless
- barroomhero 1y agoI'm with you. Augmented Reality is what I'm looking for. I've been dreaming about it for decades.
- rollcat 1y agoAugmented reality is what you already have right here, right now, on your wrist and in your ears. In my book, AR is completely invisible, until you need it: - A smart watch + strict notification filters (good idea either way), means you only see a notification when something worthy of your attention happens (you get a text, event reminder, etc). You can glance at the notification and decide if it requires your reaction, instead of reaching for your phone. (And likely, waste another 10min on it.) - Wireless earbuds with turn-by-turn directions, especially for walking and public transport. Again, you don't need a screen, you can admire your surroundings or read a book. - Pay for stuff. If you'd spend 10s on pulling a card out of your wallet, it saves you an hour of your life per year. - Track your vitals. Overall not that important, until you notice and suspect something is wrong - you can compare things month over month, see trends, show it to your doctor, etc. I took a hard hit falling off a skateboard, my watch started a countdown to call for help - I stopped it, but I needed a minute to get up, so it was really reassuring to have this.
- caydenpiercehax 1y agoYou're right, it doesn't. Because the glasses that you can actually wear today are not MR/AR. But as the tech progresses, so will MentraOS to support spatial experiences.
- croes 1y agoSo without their cloud service no apps. Wouldn‘t call that an OS.
- fph 1y agoAh. I was about to ask if it is private and if the AI can run on-device, but I guess this comments answers all my questions in the negative. Too bad.
- xeonmc 1y agoJust as its name indicates, it’s one of the same that comes up every month and produces undesirable waste at the end of the cycle
- alex1115alex 1y agoMentraOS is a cloud OS (there doesn't exist a good way to build this on the edge, we've tried). Users don't need our cloud service, however, as it can be self-hosted: https://github.com/Mentra-Community/MentraOS/tree/main/cloud https://github.com/Mentra-Community/MentraOS/tree/main/cloud https://cloud-docs.mentra.glass/ https://cloud-docs.mentra.glass/
- g-b-r 1y agoIf there's no good way to run applications on your smart glasses, they don't seem to be too smart...
- dcreater 1y agoRidiculous. Based on everything ive been able to infer and the comments on this thread, perhaps safe yo classify this under the FauxSS rather than FOSS
- dang 1y agoRelated. Others? Show HN: Sheet Music in Smart Glasses - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43906442 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43906442 - May 2025 (25 comments)
- zoklet-enjoyer 1y agoLive translation is something I've been dreaming about since Google Glass. I just want translation, subtitles, turn by turn directions, and ad blocking.
- rippeltippel 1y ago> and ad blocking The possibility of shooting ads directly into the retina is probably the main driving force behind smart glasses.
- joshuat 1y agoThe idea of ad blocking with smart glasses kind of freaks me out. I'll take additive but I don't want subtractive reality where parts of the world are being hidden from me.
- barnabee 1y ago> I don't want subtractive reality where parts of the world are being hidden from me I’ll make an exception for ad blocking as long as there’s a visual marker where the ad was.
- dns_snek 1y ago> parts of the world are being hidden from me There's a Black Mirror episode on that (and more), S2E4 White Christmas.
- ineedasername 1y ago
- poly2it 1y agoHow open-source are these glasses really? Are all software components compilable from source, or do they just publish an SDK Espressif-style?
- SparkyMcUnicorn 1y agoIt looks like it really is open source. Even the "cloud" components appear to be open source, and are in this repo. https://docs.mentra.glass/contributing https://docs.mentra.glass/contributing
- alex1115alex 1y agoIt's all open-source: https://github.com/Mentra-Community/MentraOS https://github.com/Mentra-Community/MentraOS
- grokx 1y agoNot really, despite the repo being named MentraOS, this repo seems to include only some mobile apps (that either run on a phone or on the glasses), some server code, and some SDKs. Mentra glasses are likely running on a fork of AOSP, which is not in this repo.
- SparkyMcUnicorn 1y agoAOSP (or even a minimal fork) is way too heavy to be running on the glasses. It looks like the firmware is quite minimal and the "OS" is the app. https://github.com/Mentra-Community/MentraOS/tree/main/mcu_client https://github.com/Mentra-Community/MentraOS/tree/main/mcu_c...
- alex1115alex 1y agoMentra Live runs AOSP similar to the other AI glasses on the market (Ray-Ban, Xiaomi AI Glasses, RayNeo V3 AI Glasses, etc). It's heavy, but allows us to ship fast. You'll find this code in `asg_client` folder. We're also working on a pair of HUD glasses that will release in 2026 using an NRF5340 MCU. The code for this is being developed in the `mcu_client` folder.
- andrewla 1y agoIs anybody making smart glasses that are just a display? For me, the rest of the feature set verges on being anti-features. I'd much rather a very rudimentary display that my phone or another device could send relatively low bandwidth data to over bluetooth or some other protocol and build from there. Having a camera or a mic on the glasses themselves seems like something I'd mostly want to avoid for privacy, and having a speaker just seems like gilding the lily when we already have a variety of headphones to choose from.
- arbayi 1y agohttps://store.vufine.com/ https://store.vufine.com/ I think vufine might be what you are looking for, I don't know much about them as well, also found it here on Hacker News.
- alchemist1e9 1y agoIt’s wired and very finicky. Basically a 10 year old solution to this problem. I have on in my collection. It’s cool but not really useful or in same tier as the other products being mentioned.’
- skhameneh 1y agoNot quite "smart glasses", but if you want "glasses that are just a display", the Lenovo Legion Glasses are pretty good and they look like normal aviators at first glance. I have a pair and I've been experimenting a bit. For iOS you can mirror display or use Stage Manager. For Android, at least with Samsung, DEX is pretty decent. For audio, they're decent too, I like the convenience and comfort. The audio has good fidelity, but depth is mediocre (better than phone speakers though). FWIW I say DEX is decent, having much of the same gripes as I do with Stage Manager. Dual screen, resizing windows, and full screen support is still a mixed bag on all mobile devices. It can be very frustrating at times. Application support on iOS and Android is about the same, which is disappointing. Supposedly iOS 26 fixes some of this, but I haven't tried the beta.
- HeatrayEnjoyer 1y agoGlasses with a camera should be legislated away with specific narrow exceptions for e.g. safety in certain industrial tasks.
- cco 1y agoHere's the deal, you don't need any of this. I have Rayban Metas and the hardware is great...but the software borders on being unhelpful. If they merely served a dumb camera and bluetooth headset to my phone they'd be an unbelievably good product. Meta won't do this because they want to capture _everything_ going on, but I don't want to chat with Meta's AI, it is very bad, I want to chat with Gemini or ChatGPT and I can do so with their glasses but I must initiate that on my phone (Meta won't give you wakewords for OpenAI/Google of course). So my suggestion here would be don't? There is no need for an app store or anything like that, just the thinest software layer you need to make the sunglass hardware work as a dumb bluetooth headset and remote camera for the user's phone.
- bighead1 1y agoThis comment reminds me of a simple `esp32` project I saw recently that lets you send your LLM requests via SMS. It basically offloads everything. Particularly useful when you don't have a decent data connection, but can still send SMS. edit: found it https://www.reddit.com/r/arduino/comments/1n7r3vl/a_textbot_for_internet_over_sms/ https://www.reddit.com/r/arduino/comments/1n7r3vl/a_textbot_...
- jasonsb 1y agoI was about to make the exact same comment. But then I remembered that there are billions of people who buy products advertised on Facebook and TikTok because it's "cool" and "fun". So what do I know about the future of smart glasses OS? Probably nothing.
- verdverm 1y agoMETA wants to be the Android of smart glasses because they know it will be the next dominate form factor when we have desirable devices (also why they are starting with less hardware but a form factor people feel comfortable wearing in public) Android XR is coming out with Moohan next month, if Visor ever comes out, it is believed that will eventually by on AXR. Apple still seems hobbled since Jobs left
- vorpalhex 1y ago
- bighead1 1y agoLove this bit from mentra's careers page, https://mentra.glass/pages/careers https://mentra.glass/pages/careers This is not the place for * Prioritize work-life balance
- bobajeff 1y agoI love how direct Chinese language/culture is. (At least from my perspective.)
- dcreater 1y agoThey're not Chinese
- g-b-r 1y ago> Cayden 凯登 Pierce CEO/CTO/Founder > Cayden leads Mentra, overseeing software, hardware, and operations across San Francisco and Shenzhen > Nicolo Micheletti > In late 2024, he dropped out of Tsinghua University in Beijing to work on MentraOS > Thomas Tee > Head of Hardware > Thomas leads Mentra’s hardware team in Shenzhen > Mentra Shenzhen > Baoan, Shenzhen, > 广东省深圳市宝安区 > 新安街道创业二路 > 中洲中央公寓1905室
- dade_ 1y agoI was in Shenzhen, electronics market district. I hear Christmas music. What the hell? I round the corner to see a large stage and seating. There is a large banner in English that says, “Consumption Festival”.
- sneak 1y ago> We're a squad of hardcore builders between San Francisco and Shenzhen working 996 to build the next personal computer. We're upgrading human intelligence with high bandwidth interfaces. We're transhumanist hackers. And we're not just here for a job. We're here for a mission. Being upfront about 996 (and jira hatred further down the page) is wild. I sort of love it.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- YVoyiatzis 1y agoIf smart glasses can’t self-adjust vision or flag cataracts, they’re missing the point. This is not being discussed.
- senectus1 1y agoalso the range of shapes... they all seem to be "round" glasses.. I look like an idiot in round glasses i need rectangular shaped lenses.
- michaelmior 1y ago> Devs get to write 1 app that runs on any pair of smart glases. Except it seems they only run on Mentra glasses. Not Meta Ray-Bans, Echo Frames, or any of the many other existing smart glasses platforms.
- alex1115alex 1y agoHey, thanks for commenting, but this isn't true. You can check out our glasses compatibility list here: https://github.com/Mentra-Community/MentraOS/blob/main/glasses-compatibility.md https://github.com/Mentra-Community/MentraOS/blob/main/glass... We're also looking to support the Brilliant Labs Halo glasses once they release later this year. Regarding Ray-Bans: We'd love to support those, but the Ray-Bans are extremely locked down. Nobody has found a jailbreak yet. We're always open to support more glasses provided they're all-day wearable and have an SDK.
- michaelmior 1y agoThanks for clarifying! It's great to see that other platforms are supported. This wasn't immediately clear from reading through the website.
- jajuuka 1y agoGood to see someone jump on these early with FOSS. Seems pretty early days for the this OS and the tech though. No device has full support yet. I'm still not convinced smart glasses are going to have any staying power either.
- dcreater 1y agoI would save your excitement. It's likely the same old playbook that every PE backed startup uses
- caydenpiercehax 1y agoFwiw we've been building open source smart glasses tech for 7 years, without a dime of funding until ~9 months ago, you can see it all on GitHub. We actually want this next platform to be open, that's our mission.
- dcreater 1y agoI don't ever doubt the founders or the early employees. We may not even fault the investors. Its just the nature of the beast that when funds are raised, returns need to be made on investments and that typically dictates certain business practices that are currently prevalent here in silicon valley. I'll cite the recent thread with Ollama's founders - they said the same thing of wanting to always be open. But if they truly cared about the FOSS community, they would not have moved to shadily fork llama.cpp instead of just contributing to that project and stating it proudly/clearly. This came to a head recently with their priorities becoming clear for the launch of gpt-oss to the point that even Georgi Gerganov himself spoke up.
- g-b-r 1y agoStore requiring an account, and apps actually running on their servers. This is definitely not the smart glasses operating system to converge on. If there's anything worthwhile in it I'd advise interested people in forking it, and turning it into an actually open open-source operating system.
- alex1115alex 1y agoHey thanks for commenting. Developers host their own apps - they don't run on our servers. See: https://docs.mentra.glass/ubuntu-deployment https://docs.mentra.glass/ubuntu-deployment https://docs.mentra.glass/railway-deployment https://docs.mentra.glass/railway-deployment In your opinion, what do you think should change to make this an "actual" open source OS?
- g-b-r 1y agoOk, although everything seems to go through the "MentraOS Cloud" (https://docs.mentra.glass/core-concepts https://docs.mentra.glass/core-concepts). It's not that the OS is not open source, it's that it seems a privacy nightmare; the fact that the app also runs on the developers' servers just adds to the amount of parties you need to trust. That you and the people around you need to trust, actually. And the company has strong connections to China, by the way. The system is also not very open, if the users are forced to use your store. It seems unlikely that there's much to be salvaged, given that you're using AOSP as the actual operating system.
- caydenpiercehax 1y agoMentraOS allows multiple apps to run at the same time and access context at the same time by running apps in the cloud. This is enabled by relay servers. You can use Mentra's relay server, or host your own. This is the architecture that we use and recommend so multiple apps can run at once and access powerful AI, while saving your phones battery. If you need to run offline or on the edge, we're working on the Mentra Edge SDK so you can skip the cloud, but it has downsides - only 1 app at a time. Remember, every app on your phone is communicating with its own backend - which you have to trust. This isn't different. Users aren't forced to use the store. You can self host a relay server, self host a store, etc.
- mayowaxcvi 1y agoVery excited by all this! Have been searching for something like this for so long!
- pjmlp 1y agoIt seems to be an SDK for apps running on existing iOS and Android devices, hardly an OS.
- 1dom 1y agoFrom the careers page: > Life at Mentra > We're a squad of hardcore builders between San Francisco and Shenzhen working 996 to build the next personal computer. We're upgrading human intelligence with high bandwidth interfaces. We're transhumanist hackers. > And we're not just here for a job. We're here for a mission. This is the worst of SV VC bullshit right here and is antithetical to open sustainable software. "We're here for a mission" - I'm sure all those VC firms involved are there for the the same mission too, right? If this goes anywhere or becomes anything, it'll be rug-pulled out of open source.
- nissepihl 1y agoI know the founders and they're very sincere and passionate. I think their drive is more important in shaping the company than the VC capital.
- 1dom 1y agoI don't doubt that they claim to feel that way, and that they feel they'll be the ones who push back against VC profiteering and enshittification. That just confirms to me that they're in the same position as any of VC backed founder. That's why the VC firm backed them: because they saw an opportunity to profit from someone else's dream. I would really, really love to revisit this discussion with you and the founders in 5 and 10 years time - I'd be happier if you proved me wrong:)
- walterbell 1y agoWe need more knowledge sharing on the topic of negotiating with VCs. Charles Ferguson's book was good, followed by the Venture Hacks blog from AngelList, https://www.amazon.com/High-Stakes-No-Prisoners-Internet/dp/0812931432/ https://www.amazon.com/High-Stakes-No-Prisoners-Internet/dp/... What we have here is a rare thing - an unvarnished account by an insider of what it took to make a deal with the VC sharks during the dawn of the Internet Age and come out of it with something you could take to the bank. You wont find many other tech business books giving such a detailed account from start to finish. Though it is lacking on the technical side, the view from the 'money guys' is pretty detailed. It is pretty amazing to realize the whole arc of the story is only about two years.. To then leverage his proceeds into some constructive social documentaries like 'Inside Job' is a great second act..
- misternintendo 1y agoI remember trying an early pair of smart glasses years ago and feeling let down because nothing worked beyond the demo apps. Seeing MentraOS now makes me think this could finally be the moment where smart glasses start to feel like real everyday devices.
- synergy20 1y agointerested in getting one of these smart glasses, checked their website, nowhere mentioned if it's good for near-sighted or far-sighted, or both. I hate to wear two pairs of glasses on top of each other.