Niantic Labs is coming up with a pair of AR glasses, CEO posts teaser image on Twitter

Once the AR glasses are actually launched they could allow you to Pokemon Go hands-free, among other things.

The teaser image of Niantic's AR glasses.  (Twitter/John Hanke)

Niantic Labs' CEO John Hanke has been talking about the potential of augmented reality (AR) for a while now, since 2017 actually, particularly via high-tech glasses. And it looks like the company is closing in on making that a reality.

Hanke shared a little teaser image of what looks like a close-up view of AR glasses that comes equipped with lenses and a small speaker along with the Niantic logo in orange inscribed on it. 

Exciting to see the progress we're making to enable new kinds of devices that leverage our platform... pic.twitter.com/yYglk4q89G

— John Hanke (@johnhanke) March 29, 2021

It is not clear yet if these glasses are an expansion of Google Glass and the HoloLens and the tech trajectory they have been on. There is also no information about if these glasses are meant for audio-only augmentation like Amazon's Alexa-powered Echo Frames.

Niantic had announced a partnership with Qualcomm in 2019 to work on AR glasses. At that point they had clarified that they had no plans of making their own hardware and were instead building on reference designs that others might manufacture.

Since then, Niantic has acquired a startup that can help enable its world-scale AR plans and has also announced an extended partnership with Nintendo that includes a new Pikmin game that's expected to launch soon, as per reports.

Niantic's games, Pokemon Go, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite and Ingress, use AR in their gameplay that can be turned on and off as desired. The introduction of AR glasses that can aid the gameplay will add an interesting dimension to it.