Google's Finally Ditching Support for Its Explorer Edition of Glass

Google Glass will soon receive the final nail in its coffin – as a consumer-marketed product, that is. The company announced this week it’s rolling out one final update to its Glass Explorer Edition. But don’t worry: The wearable’s more industry-focused yet still equally dorky-looking brethren, the Enterprise Edition, will continue receiving support. And so the Google Glass brand lives on. Praise be.

In a recent blog on its support website, Google includes instructions for installing the final update, which has to be done manually, along with some important details about the process moving forward:

“After February 25, 2020, this update removes the need and ability to use your Google account on Glass. It also removes Glass’ connection to backend services. This update is available now and should be installed so you can continue using your device without issues.”

Users will still be able to download the update after this date, but they’ll lose access to apps like YouTube and Gmail in the meantime. And after 25 February, all sign-ins to Glass will require you have the update installed. Google support or not, though, they’re still smart glasses at the end of the day, and so functions like Bluetooth pairing, sideloading apps, as well as taking videos and photos will remain available.

Again, none of this extends to the Enterprise Edition of Glass, the redeveloped and rebranded wearable Google began officially marketing to industry folks like manufacturing workers and medical professionals in 2017. If anything, Google seems to be doubling down on this version, as the company released a second version – Glass Enterprise Edition 2 – earlier this year with a few hardware updates like the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR 1 chipset and a USB-C port.

But just because Google’s Explorer Version of Glass never quite caught on with the casual crowd – whether you want to point the finger at privacy concerns or its buggy launch or the fact that early adopters occasionally got punched in the face for wearing them (or anything vaguely similar) – that doesn’t mean we can’t imagine all the myriad bad directions Google’s smartglasses could have gone. Had the company continued pushing forward, dead set on turning Glass into the newest consumer tech craze, we might have been cursed with editions akin to Snapchat’s obnoxious Gucci-themed Spectacles by this point.

And so, I’d like to give a short send-off to all the horrible Google Glass ideas that could have been:

• The Pince-Nez Edition: For the Distinguished Arsehole
• The 3D Edition. It comes with exclusive red and blue lenses that make everything look so real, it’s almost like you could reach out and touch it!
• The Minions Edition. Look, Google Glass debuted in 2014. Those little jaundiced creeps got their own movie the next year. You can’t tell me Google wouldn’t have cashed in on Minion Mania.
• And lastly, the “Come On, Google Just Give Us the Glasses From Spy Kids 2 Already“ Edition

GIF: Giphy

Featured image: Frederic Brown (Getty)