Nearby Glasses App Alerts Users to Smart Glasses Recording Nearby

As smart glasses quietly edge into the mainstream, a growing number of privacy advocates are asking a simple question: How do you know when someone nearby might be recording you?

A new smartphone application called Nearby Glasses is attempting to provide an answer.

Designed to detect Bluetooth signals emitted by wearable devices, the app alerts users when it identifies potential smart glasses operating in the vicinity. The concept arrives at a time when devices such as Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses are becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish from ordinary eyewear.

Wearables That Don’t Look Like Wearables

Unlike earlier generations of conspicuous headsets, today’s smart glasses are intentionally subtle. Many models resemble traditional frames but house microphones, open-ear speakers, AI assistants, and discreet cameras capable of capturing photos and video with a tap or voice command.

Meta’s collaboration with EssilorLuxottica has propelled the category into the mainstream. Sold under household brands like Ray-Ban and Oakley, the glasses have reportedly sold more than seven million units over the past year, underscoring rapid consumer adoption.

The market is also expanding. Snap Inc. offers its own Snap Spectacles, while tech giants including Apple, Google, and Samsung are reportedly developing competing devices.

As competition intensifies, so too do concerns about surveillance.

A “Tiny Part of Resistance”

The Nearby Glasses app was developed by Yves Jeanrenaud, who describes it as a modest attempt to push back against what he views as the normalization of ambient recording technology.

“I consider it to be a tiny part of resistance against surveillance tech,” Jeanrenaud told 404 Media.

According to Jeanrenaud, the idea emerged after reports surfaced of individuals allegedly using smart glasses to record others without consent — including incidents involving men filming inside massage parlors and accounts of Customs and Border Protection agents reportedly wearing the devices while on duty.

While manufacturers typically include indicator lights to signal recording, critics argue that such visual cues are easy to miss in everyday settings.

How the App Works

Nearby Glasses relies on Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) scanning — specifically targeting advertising frames, short bursts of data that devices broadcast to announce their presence.

Jeanrenaud said he used a public directory of BLE manufacturers to map signals associated with products from Meta, Snap, and subsidiaries of EssilorLuxottica. When the app detects matching identifiers, it alerts the user that smart glasses may be nearby.

However, Jeanrenaud cautions against overconfidence.

“This is a tech solution to a social problem exaggerated by tech,” he told 404 Media. “I do not want to promote tech solutionism, nor do I want people to feel falsely secure. It’s still imperfect.”

False positives remain a key limitation. The app may, for example, mistakenly identify other Bluetooth-enabled devices — including virtual reality headsets — as smart glasses.

Facial Recognition Raises the Stakes

Privacy concerns surrounding smart glasses may intensify if future features materialize.

Earlier this month, The New York Times reported that Meta is developing facial recognition software internally referred to as “Name Tag.” The system, according to unnamed sources cited in the report, would allow wearers to identify individuals and retrieve personal information via an AI assistant interface.

While Meta has not publicly confirmed deployment plans for such technology, the possibility has amplified anxieties about real-time identification tools embedded in everyday accessories.

Civil liberties advocates argue that combining facial recognition with discreet wearable cameras could transform ordinary public encounters into searchable data events.

Availability and Expansion Plans

Nearby Glasses is currently available for Android devices through the Google Play Store and is also accessible via GitHub for those who wish to inspect or modify the code. Jeanrenaud has indicated that an iOS version is in development.

The app’s Play Store description reflects the shifting reality of wearable technology: smart glasses, it notes, are becoming a routine part of daily life — yet they remain difficult to distinguish from conventional eyewear.

Neither Meta nor Snap immediately responded to media requests for comment regarding the app.

A Social Adjustment in Real Time

The rise of smart glasses presents a cultural dilemma. Public spaces have long operated under an implicit understanding: while smartphones can record, they are visible and conspicuous when used for that purpose. Smart glasses complicate that social contract by embedding recording capabilities into something nearly invisible.

Apps like Nearby Glasses may offer a partial layer of transparency, but they do not resolve the broader ethical debate.

As wearable technology becomes more sophisticated — and potentially more invasive — society faces a familiar challenge: adapting norms, laws, and expectations to innovations that outpace them.

For now, the presence of a discreet frame may no longer be as ordinary as it seems.