Wary of strangers recording you? This app warns you when smart glasses are nearby

Meta’s smart glasses have been one of the few hits the social media giant has had in the hardware space. And it won’t be long before we start seeing offerings from Google, Samsung, Apple, and more. While smart glasses can offer some interesting experiences, there’s also a darker side to this tech that can’t be ignored. If you’re someone who’s wary of the danger smart glasses pose or you simply want to avoid people who wear them, you may be interested in this new Android app.

As reported by 404 Media, hobbyist developer and sociologist Yves Jeanrenaud has created an Android app called Nearby Glasses. Available on the Google Play Store and GitHub, the app is able to send you an alert when it detects smart glasses in your vicinity. It’s able to accomplish this feat by scanning for the distinctive Bluetooth signatures that these devices emit. Specifically, the app looks for Bluetooth “advertising frames,” which are small bits of data that Bluetooth devices regularly broadcast.

For this app, Jeanrenaud reportedly referenced a directory of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) manufacturers to make it so the app specifically searches for advertising frames from Meta. It also searches for Luxottica Group S.p.A., which not only offers its own smart glasses, but also partners with Meta and Snap for their smart glasses. “If it sees an advertising frame of these manufacturers, it notifies you. That’s basically it,” Jeanrenaud told the outlet.

Since smart glasses caught on, there have been a number of troubling reports about how the tech is and can be abused. For instance, you may have heard recently that Meta plans to implement facial recognition in its smart glasses this year. This could be a privacy nightmare, as two college students showed back in 2024 when they were able to pull up personal information such as names, phone numbers, addresses, and family members after adding facial recognition to their smart glasses. Not to mention that smart glasses could be used to help bolster stalking and harassment.

When asked why he made the app, Jeanrenaud told the outlet, “I consider it to be a tiny part of resistance against surveillance tech.” He also warns that he doesn’t want “people to feel falsely secure” while using his app because it’s not perfect. For example, the app can generate false positives when around other hardware that emits these Bluetooth signals, like a Meta Quest 2 VR headset.