San Francisco – Cayden Pierce, CEO and CTO of Mentra, announced via social media that he successfully wore the company's Mentra Live smart glasses for 14 consecutive hours, marking a significant milestone for the wearable device. Pierce highlighted the comfort of the glasses, stating, > "This is the first camera glasses I've ever worn all day without pain." The announcement underscores Mentra's focus on creating smart glasses suitable for continuous, all-day use.
The Mentra Live smart glasses are a modular camera-and-audio kit designed primarily for enterprise and developer users. Priced at $249 for pre-order, the device integrates a front-facing camera, microphone, and speaker, with full support for the MentraOS Software Development Kit (SDK). Shipments for the Mentra Live are expected to commence in the fall of 2025.
Mentra is building MentraOS 2.0, an open-source operating system positioned as "the Android for smart glasses." This platform is engineered for real-time AI, cloud-native applications, and continuous wear, supporting features like live captioning, translation, notifications, and an AI assistant. The company's strategy emphasizes an open, modular ecosystem, differentiating itself from more vertically integrated competitors in the XR space.
In conjunction with the product's performance, Pierce also revealed a key hiring initiative, stating, > "We're hiring an engineer to own the code on these glasses." This recruitment drive signals Mentra's commitment to further developing and refining the core software capabilities of its smart glasses, ensuring robust and scalable functionality for its growing developer community of over 4,000.
Mentra recently secured $8 million in funding, with notable investors including Rich Miner (Android co-founder), Jawed Karim (YouTube co-founder), and Y Combinator. This investment supports the company's ambitious goal of establishing MentraOS as the foundational software layer for a new generation of lightweight, comfortable smart glasses, fostering broad adoption and innovation within the wearable technology sector.