Reliance Jio, Torchit and Qualcomm are advancing smart glasses designed for India-specific uses, from multilingual AI and scan-to-pay services to tools for visually impaired users.
Indian companies are moving beyond fitness bands and notification gadgets and into a new class of smart wearables aimed at local needs, from voice-driven artificial intelligence to payments, education and accessibility. At India Mobile Congress 2026, the clearest signal came from Reliance Jio, which has now introduced Jio Frames, an AI-powered eyewear platform designed for Indian users and pitched as a hands-free companion with support for multiple Indian languages. The company had previously said it was developing a broader family of wearables, with a launch window in India around November or December 2026.
Jio Frames is being positioned around everyday use rather than novelty. According to the company’s presentation, the device is meant to handle live translation, AI note-taking, scan-and-pay transactions, music playback, hands-free calling and live cricket commentary, all triggered by the voice command “Hello, Jio”. Jio said the system already supports eight languages , Hindi, English, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam , and that it plans to add four more. It is also exploring several hardware formats, including audio-only frames, camera-equipped glasses and true wireless stereo headsets, though it has not disclosed pricing.
Another strand of the category is being shaped by accessibility. Ahmedabad-based Torchit is building its Jyoti ecosystem around smart glasses for visually impaired users, with functions designed to read text aloud, identify objects and help users navigate daily tasks. The company says the glasses have six modes , Explore, Read, Medicine, Colour, Currency, and Food and Grocery , and that users can switch between them with physical buttons. Its latest version, launched in July 2026, is wireless, replacing an earlier wired design, and Torchit says the products have reached more than 40,000 users across India.
Hema Khatri, Torchit’s chief growth and partnerships officer, said the aim is to give visually impaired students access to educational opportunities on a par with sighted peers. Torchit’s materials say the broader mission is to improve independence in learning and mobility, and the company is also developing an AI assistant for the glasses. The current price range is about ₹20,000 to ₹25,000, underscoring that this segment is still early but moving towards more specialised, practical use.
Qualcomm, which has worked with Jio and Lenskart on smart glasses, sees the strongest near-term opportunities in India around payments, education and productivity. Sumit Sonal, Qualcomm India’s head of marketing, said the company had demonstrated a glasses-based payment system with Lenskart in collaboration with the National Payments Corporation of India, using voice or fingerprint authentication. He said live translation and transcription are already becoming routine use cases, but the next wave will depend on partnerships across hardware, software and services. Qualcomm’s India engineering teams are also working with local companies to take such products to market, a sign that the wearable race is increasingly being shaped by domestic requirements rather than imported templates.
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