I recently bought the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses Gen 1, and they’re pretty impressive. But the moment I started casually recording bits of everyday life, a slightly uncomfortable thought crept in. It’s just as easy for someone else to do the exact same thing, without thinking twice about it.
I’ve tried to be mindful, careful about what I record, and respectful of the people around me. But not everyone approaches it that way. And if these privacy issues make you a little uneasy; I completely get your point. In situations like this, having a bit of backup helps. That’s where this app fits in. It’s built for people who prefer staying aware of their surroundings. It can detect nearby smart glasses and give you a quiet heads-up. It will help you stay informed and make you feel a little more in control when you’re out and about.
How Do Smart Glasses Work?
Fascinated by smart glasses? Read this article to find out exactly what they are and how they work.
This app scans for smart glasses you can’t see
It hunts for Bluetooth signals
Nearby Glasses is an Android app designed to help you be more aware in public spaces. It works by scanning for Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) signals and identifying patterns, or signatures, that are commonly associated with smart glasses. It keeps an eye out for devices around you that could potentially be recording. If it detects something nearby, typically within a range of about 10 to 15 meters, the app sends you a notification alert.
It is not claiming that someone is recording you, but it does give you a heads-up so you can stay informed and decide how comfortable you feel at that moment.
One of the more reassuring parts is its approach to privacy. Nearby Glasses is open source, which means its code is publicly available on GitHub for anyone to inspect. It does not track your activity, run ads, or collect personal data in the background. You can download it from the Google Play Store on your Android phone.
The app has two modes and one goal
Keep you quietly informed
To get started, download the app from the Google Play Store on your Android phone. Once it’s installed, open it and tap on Start Scanning. That’s pretty much all you need to do to set things in motion. The app gives you two ways to stay informed, depending on how actively you want to use it.
- The first is straightforward. You can turn on notifications, and the app will alert you whenever it detects something nearby. This works well if you don’t want to keep checking the app constantly.
- The second option is Canary mode. Instead of sending notifications, the app shows a small yellow bird moving inside a box on your screen. As long as everything looks normal, the canary keeps moving, indicating that nothing suspicious has been picked up. If the app does sense something, the visual changes instantly. The box around the bird shifts to a black-and-yellow caution pattern, indicating that something nearby may need your attention.
Since the app scans continuously, it can drain your phone’s battery over time.
When I tried it with my own smart glasses, the app worked best at close range. The alert popped up quickly when someone wearing glasses was standing near me. Out of curiosity, I asked my mom to step outside into the corridor, and the app still managed to pick up the glasses. However, in some situations, both indoors and outdoors, the app occasionally didn’t send alerts, which was quite disappointing.
That said, the app is quite upfront about its limitations. It can occasionally flag other devices, like VR headsets, as potential matches. So, if the app pings something, it is best to treat it as a prompt to stay alert, not a reason to immediately assume the worst about someone around you.
What to look for when the app isn’t enough
The physical tells most people miss entirely
Now that you’ve got an app that can flag smart glasses nearby, it’s tempting to lean on it completely. But it’s smarter to treat it as a helpful assistant, not your only line of defense. So, if someone is recording, there are a few telltale signs you can watch out for:
- That tiny LED matters more than you think: Most smart glasses, including Meta’s Ray-Ban models, have a small indicator light on the frame. If it’s glowing steadily or blinking, there’s a good chance a recording is happening.
- Watch the hands, not just the glasses: Recording usually starts with a tap on the frame. If someone keeps reaching up and tapping their glasses, especially more than once, it could be a sign they’re triggering photos or videos.
That LED can be covered with a sticker or blocked in some way. So while it’s the most obvious clue, it’s not foolproof. That’s why paying attention to behavior, like repeated gestures or oddly directed attention, becomes just as important.
Change These Settings to Stop New Android Apps From Spying on You
Freshly-installed apps can do a lot more than you’d like, until you rein them in.
When in doubt, step away
Smart glasses are only going to get more common. They’re getting sleeker, more capable, and increasingly indistinguishable from a regular pair of frames. That’s great for the people wearing them — and occasionally a little unsettling for everyone else in the room.
There’s a reasonable argument to be made here: if you walk into a store and someone starts recording you on their phone, you’d notice. You might even say something. But if someone’s glasses are doing the same thing, most people wouldn’t have a clue.
When you ring tech support, they’re legally required to tell you the call is being recorded before it starts. You get to decide whether you’re okay with that. Smart glasses, right now, offer no such courtesy.
Nearby Glasses won’t fix that. It’s not perfect, it misses things, and it’ll occasionally flag your friend’s VR headset as a threat. This kind of tool is likely just the start. As smart glasses go mainstream, expect more apps, and eventually, more regulation. Until then, something that quietly taps you on the shoulder and says heads up is a pretty good place to begin.
- OS
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Android
- Price model
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Free
- Open-Source?
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Yes
This app helps you stay aware of smart glasses around you. It continuously scans in the background, so you don’t have to keep it open all the time. If it detects something, it sends you a quick alert, giving you a heads-up without interrupting what you’re doing.
