What comes after the smartphone?

Smart glasses, AI companions, and brain chips—a tour of the possible future beyond smartphones

Image generated with Midjourney

Many have tried to “kill" the smartphone, but none have succeeded so far. Since Apple’s famous keynote that launched iPhone in 2007, smartphones have evolved to become more powerful and deeply ingrained in our daily lives. For many, the smartphone is their personal computer—it is always with them and is the only computing device they own.

Today, it seems smartphones have reached their peak. Every major manufacturer has converged on the same basic design: a rectangular slab of glass, metal, or plastic, with cameras on both sides and buttons on the edges. Most changes are now incremental—bigger batteries, faster chips, better cameras—rather than revolutionary. The gap between genuine innovations grows ever wider.

This stagnation has inspired innovators to search for the “next big thing” and ask: What if there’s a chance to disrupt the status quo with a device that could replace the smartphone entirely? Many have tried. At best, their inventions—like smartwatches—ended up as accessories or companions to the smartphone, never true replacements. At worst, these supposed “smartphone killers” were themselves rendered obsolete by the very smartphones they sought to overthrow.

Despite many failures, the dream of introducing a new device that has made the same impact as smartphones almost 20 years ago is still alive.

AI companion devices

The rise of generative AI and AI chatbots like ChatGPT offered an opportunity to try out something new—a new type of personal device with (and sometimes only with) an AI assistant. Very quickly, startups emerged to do exactly that. Notable examples here were Humane AI Pin and Rabbit R1. Both promised to be your AI companion, free from the confines of the smartphone. There was buzz, and even a measure of hype, but after launch, both fell short of expectations.

In hindsight, these devices tried to capitalise on the “ChatGPT moment” and the crazy wave of interest and investments pouring into AI startups in 2023. They did not offer anything to convince people to ditch their smartphones. They were either a wrapper on ChatGPT, like in the case of Humane AI Pin, or lacked functionalities everyone is used to having on their smartphones, like in the case of Rabbit R1.

Still, the dream of a dedicated AI companion device lives on. There is Friend which is promising to begin shipping its AI companion necklaces soon. And most notably, OpenAI has signalled its own entry into the space.

Rumours about OpenAI considering a hardware product were floating for a while, and the recent acquihire of Jony Ive confirmed them. Although neither Sam Altman nor Jony Ive publicly said what the device will look like, there are some leaks. According to Apple supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the current prototype is slightly larger than the AI Pin, with a form factor as compact and elegant as an iPod Shuffle. The device reportedly won’t have a screen and will be worn like a necklace, featuring microphones for voice control and cameras to capture the user’s surroundings. Of course, these details are based on early leaks, and much could change before the device is officially unveiled—possibly as soon as late next year.

Sam Altman reportedly said to OpenAI employees that this device has the “chance to do the biggest thing we’ve ever done as a company here” and that it has the potential to add $1 trillion in value to OpenAI. He envisions a future in which 100 million AI “companions” are shipped and become a third core device a person would have on their desk, next to a MacBook and an iPhone.

It remains to be seen if Jony Ive does his “magic” again and creates another massively successful product on a scale of iPod or an iPhone, or if this new device joins Humane AI Pin on the pile of dead ideas.

OpenAI has the advantage of being OpenAI—a household name synonymous for many with artificial intelligence and whatever billions are left from training and running massive AI models to spend on research and development. I am certain that whatever OpenAI shows, it will look sleek, futuristic and will catch attention. But it will still face the same challenges as others. Will it be useful outside the modern San Francisco studio, in a noisy and chaotic world? Will it be constantly listening, raising questions about privacy? Will the first users be ostracised for wearing the device because of the negative associations with AI or OpenAI, just like with Google Glass before it?

Smart glasses

Image generated with Midjourney

While some companies race to build the perfect AI companion, others are working to bring another long-held sci-fi fantasy to life: smart glasses. These devices aim to overlay digital information directly onto our view of the physical world, promising a seamless blend of reality and technology.

As with any new technology, the first attempts did not end well. The most notable failure was Google Glass. Released in 2013 at $1,500, Google Glass offered limited functionality and quickly sparked a wave of privacy concerns due to its built-in camera. The product became the subject of public backlash, with early adopters—dubbed “glassholes”—even being banned from bars, cinemas, and other public spaces. By 2015, Google had pulled the device from the consumer market, refocusing it on specialised industries rather than everyday use.

Now, over a decade after Google Glass' failure, Google is trying again, this time with Android XR and Gemini. At Google I/O 2025, Google showed its new vision for smart glasses, powered by Gemini. And Google is not alone. Meta offers AI glasses in cooperation with Ray-Ban and is developing the next generation of smart glasses with Project Orion. There is also Snap with their Spectacles, and Apple is rumoured to introduce its smart glasses in 2026.

This new wave of smart glasses has learned from Google Glass’s missteps and embraced more conventional, fashionable designs. Companies like Google and Meta are partnering with established eyewear brands such as Gentle Monster, Warby Parker, and Ray-Ban to create devices people would actually want to wear. Thanks to advances in multimodal AI, capable of processing both images and audio, today’s smart glasses offer features that were only dreams a decade ago.

Still, adoption remains low. The smart glasses industry is in its infancy and hasn’t produced its iPhone yet. It is also facing challenges with price, privacy, and proving everyday usefulness. The rumoured Apple glasses may finally move the needle, but true mainstream adoption may require years of technological refinement and broader social acceptance.

The ultimate personal computer

Let’s now speculate about what could come after wearables, smart glasses, and AI companions. If technology has already made its way from our pockets to our wrists and faces, what happens when the next step is to connect technology directly to our brains? Welcome to the world of brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), neural implants, and other concepts that sound straight out of science fiction—but are slowly edging closer to reality.

The idea behind BCIs is simple: to enable direct communication between the human brain and computers. In theory, a BCI could become the ultimate personal computer, potentially accessing our thoughts, anticipating our needs, and providing answers before we even ask questions. It could even create new forms of connection between people, such as sharing emotions or physical sensations in real time.

While this sounds like science fiction, companies like Neuralink, Synchron, and Kernel are racing to make it possible. However, BCIs and neural implants remain firmly in the research phase, and it may take decades before this vision is fully realised. For a deeper look at the main players in this space, check out my article that lists and describes leading BCI companies.

Of course, these technologies raise as many questions as they answer. Safety, privacy, ethics, and social acceptance are major hurdles. Would you trust a device that can read your thoughts? How much control should companies or governments have over such intimate technology? And as with earlier attempts at wearable tech, there’s the question of whether people will actually want this level of integration, or if these ideas will remain on the fringes for years to come.

---

I don’t think smartphones will die any time soon. For now, they remain the best—and often only—personal computers available to many people. They are powerful—Apple’s latest A18 Pro chip, which powers iPhone 16 Pro, is as powerful as M1, the first Apple Silicon chip for the Mac released in 2020. Smartphones have an enormous catalogue of apps, from social media apps to productivity apps and games. Cameras are so good that one can shoot professionally looking videos with them. These sophisticated devices set the bar high for any contenders.

However, as technology grows ever more personal, new devices may emerge that connect us to the digital world in more intimate ways.

This relentless push for intimacy with our gadgets raises both exciting possibilities and pressing questions. Will technology that’s “closer” always mean it’s better, or will we start to feel uncomfortable as the line between tool and self blurs? How much convenience are we willing to trade for privacy and autonomy? These are questions we all must grapple with as we contemplate our relationship with technology.

What’s clear is that the evolution of personal technology is far from over. Whether the next big leap is something we wear, something that listens, or even something we connect to on a neurological level, the journey to make technology truly personal is only just beginning. The future of personal technology may be closer than we think, but whether we are ready for it is an entirely different question.

Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed this post, please click the ❤️ button or share it.

Humanity Redefined sheds light on the bleeding edge of technology and how advancements in AI, robotics, and biotech can usher in abundance, expand humanity's horizons, and redefine what it means to be human.

A big thank you to my paid subscribers, to my Patrons: whmr, Florian, dux, Eric, Preppikoma and Andrew, and to everyone who supports my work on Ko-Fi. Thank you for the support!

My DMs are open to all subscribers. Feel free to drop me a message, share feedback, or just say "hi!"