Image: Sesame

Sesame, the voice AI startup led by Oculus co-founder Brendan Iribe, has opened its voice assistants to everyone through new iOS and Android apps. The glasses the company is really building won't arrive until 2027.

Frames you love to wear, with an assistant you enjoy talking to.

Voice assistants available to everyone today. Glasses coming 2027.

This release is a step towards our vision—a voice OS on the frames that can connect to your tools, act on your behalf, and help you throughout your day. pic.twitter.com/Blds0x60IS

— Sesame (@sesame) October 6, 2026

The app gives you four assistant characters, Maya, Miles, Simone and Charlie, that you can call or text. According to Sesame's getting-started guide, each one can browse the web on its own computer, send back files and links, and run "skills," which are plain-language routines you set up in conversation and can schedule, like a morning briefing.

With your permission, the assistants can also connect to Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Drive. Sesame's Google apps page says they can read and search email, draft and send messages with your approval, and create or delete calendar events. You can also plug in outside MCP servers, though only ones that use OAuth sign-in, and Sesame tells users to trust the developer first.

One detail is worth knowing before you hand over your inbox. Access is set per character, so you can give Maya your email and keep Charlie out of it.

In a blog post, chief product officer Nate Mitchell says the release runs on a new voice model, with less sycophancy, fewer repeated phrases and better pronunciation. He also says the team uses the assistants to direct coding agents like Devin, Claude Code and Codex by voice. These are Sesame's own claims. No independent tests of the new model have been published yet.

Several basics are also missing. Sesame's announcement doesn't mention a price for the app or any paid tiers, and it doesn't say which countries the app is available in. For the glasses, there's no price, no specs and no launch date beyond the year. Sesame has only said the frames will be made in Japan and that it will share more "in the coming months."

The company has a real track record with voice, though. Its Maya and Miles demos drew more than a million people in their first few weeks in 2025, TechCrunch reported, citing investor Sequoia. That October, Sesame raised a $250 million Series B co-led by Sequoia and Spark Capital. It also open-sourced a small version of its Conversational Speech Model, so developers can test that part themselves.

The bigger question is timing. Sesame describes its glasses as voice-first eyewear that the assistant will run like an operating system, and SiliconANGLE reported they won't have AR displays. By 2027, they'll be up against well-funded rivals that are already on the market.

Meta's Ray-Ban Display glasses start at $799 in the US and are expanding into Europe. Google says its Android XR audio glasses with Gemini, made with Samsung, Warby Parker and Gentle Monster, launch this fall and work with both Android and iOS phones.

That makes the app Sesame's way of building a user base before the hardware exists. If people stick with Maya and Miles on their phones, the glasses have a ready audience. If they don't, a well-made frame alone may not be enough against Meta and Google.

For now, the app is something you can try today. The glasses are still a promise.