Google Glass’ Identity Crisis

Google Glass aficionados who like to keep up with the product on social media are out of luck in that regard — at least for the time being.

On Monday (Jan. 25), 9to5Google reported that the Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts of the high-tech eyewear were no longer active.

Same for the umbrella company’s Google Plus platform, where the Google Glass account’s apparently final remarks (made Jan. 22) read as follows:

“Hi Explorers, we’ve had a blast hanging out with you on G+ throughout the Explorer Program. From now on, if you have any questions about your Glass, you can get in touch with us here: https://support.google.com/glass/answer/3079854.”

While that statement in and of itself offers little in the way of explanation for Google Glass abandoning social media, the 9to5Google story posits that Google is throwing in the towel with regards to widespread consumer adoption of the connected glasses in their most recent form (as Reuters points out, the company stopped selling the item last year) and turning its focus to creating an updated version — one that, should it reach the consumer marketplace, will likely not be called “Google Glass.”

9to5Google shares that the current incarnation of the Google Glass program is known as the “Enterprise Edition,” and it has been in testing since early 2015.

Should Google reboot its high-tech glasses in one form or another for a consumer audience, the effort will likely require a marketing push in that same direction, given that some of the user reaction on Twitter — a couple of examples of which Reuters shared — indicated a belief that Google Glass is gone for good:

“#GoogleGlass for consumers is dead, yes really dead,” wrote @JonasHaberkorn, while @javamarket said: “Disappointed in @google’s decision 2 remove #GoogleGlass history from FB & @twitter. We learn best from actual recorded history. #coverup.”