Each app, in its own right
Nearby Lens — the most complete app in the category
$1.99 once · iPhone, Apple Watch, Android · Modex Apps
The only app here with a real watchOS app. It uses the Apple Watch's own Bluetooth radio, so it keeps scanning with the iPhone out of range or switched off. Background scanning on the Watch needs Series 6 or later.
Cheapest paid option at $1.99, and the Watch app, widget and Control Center toggle are all included rather than sold separately or behind a subscription.
Runs on Android as well as Apple, with the same scoring engine and the same over-the-air rules on every platform.
Detection rules update over the air, so coverage for a new model arrives without waiting for an app review.
Rated 5.0 on the US App Store.
Runs on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Vision as well as Apple Watch and Android — the widest device coverage of any app here.
Strict, Balanced and Relaxed sensitivity modes. Because some Bluetooth manufacturer IDs are shared across a company's entire product range — an issue every app in this category faces — Strict mode raises the confidence floor so only close, high-certainty matches alert you.
AntiZuck — no Apple Watch, no Android, 2.5× the price
$4.99 once · iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Vision · 4.8 from 91 ratings
The best-known app in the category — it went viral in July 2026 and reached the top of the US paid chart.
A polished radar-style interface, a sightings history, a "Your Circle" feature for labelling glasses you already know, widgets and a Control Center toggle.
Runs on iPad, Mac and Vision Pro as well as iPhone.
No Apple Watch app, so you are back to taking your phone out — and iOS will not scan Bluetooth in the background for it.
$4.99, two and a half times the price of Nearby Lens.
iPhone only within the Apple world — there is no Android version.
Glasses Radar — free, but stops scanning the moment you close it
Free · iOS and Android
By its own documentation, iOS restricts Bluetooth scanning to the foreground, so on iPhone it only detects while you have the app open on screen. That is the opposite of what most people assume they are getting.
Free, on-device, no account — and unusually straight about its own limits.
Emphasises full byte-level fingerprint matching rather than manufacturer IDs alone, which is a legitimately stronger approach against false positives.
No Apple Watch app, and by its own account iOS detection is foreground-only.
No widget or Control Center toggle listed.
Nearby Glasses Ray-Ban Scanner — up to $727 over two years, rated 1.5
Free with in-app purchases · iPhone, Mac, Vision Pro · 1.5 from 4 ratings
Free to try, with manual scans and locally stored history at no cost.
The only app here that charges a recurring subscription — $6.99 a week or $29.99 a year for continuous scanning and the private vault. Over two years that is roughly thirty times the one-off cost of Nearby Lens.
Currently the lowest-rated app in the category, though from a very small number of ratings.
No Apple Watch app and no Android version.
Not to be confused with Nearby Glasses by Yves Jeanrenaud — a separate free, open-source Android app that passed 100,000 downloads and started much of this category. It is a genuinely good piece of work and worth a look if you are on Android and want open source. It has no Apple Watch app either, because it has no Apple version at all.
What Nearby Lens has that the others don't
Four things, every one of them checkable against the competing apps' own public listings.
A real Apple Watch app, not a companion screen
A full watchOS app with its own Bluetooth radio, its own alerts and a watch-face complication, running the identical scoring engine and identical rules as the phone. No other app in this category ships one. That matters because iOS will not scan Bluetooth in the background — so every competing app only really works while you are holding your phone with it open.
New device IDs added daily, with no app update
We add new Bluetooth device IDs to the detection rules every single day, and Nearby Lens fetches them over the air every time a scan starts. New glasses, new firmware, a newly confirmed signature — coverage reaches every installed copy the same day, with no reinstall and no waiting on App Store review. No competitor offers this: the others compile their signatures into the app binary, so their coverage is frozen until their next release clears review.
Every screen you own, one $1.99 purchase
iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Vision, Apple Watch and Android — all covered once, including the widget and the Control Center toggle. AntiZuck is $4.99, Apple-only and has no Watch app. Nearby Glasses Ray-Ban Scanner charges $6.99 a week or $29.99 a year for its real features: up to $727 over two years against our $1.99.
Confidence scoring instead of a bare verdict
Every detection carries a percentage, and an ambiguous signal is labelled as ambiguous — a Meta manufacturer ID that could be a Quest headset is shown as exactly that. Strict, Balanced and Relaxed sensitivity modes let you set the threshold yourself. An app that just says "glasses detected" is hiding the same uncertainty behind a cleaner screen.
What none of these apps can do
Every app in this category shares the same hard limits. Be suspicious of any that claims otherwise.
None can find ordinary reading or prescription glasses. Those have no battery and no radio, so there is nothing to detect.
None can detect hidden or wired cameras. Bluetooth detection only sees devices that broadcast Bluetooth.
None can tell you whether a camera is actually recording — only that a device known to have one is nearby.
None detect glasses that are switched off, not advertising, or aggressively randomising their Bluetooth identifiers.
On iOS, all of them are constrained by Apple's limits on background Bluetooth scanning. This is the specific gap an Apple Watch app closes, because the Watch scans with its own radio while it is on your wrist.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best smart glasses detector app in 2026?
It depends on what you weigh most. AntiZuck has the most ratings and the widest Apple device support at $4.99. Glasses Radar is free and documents its limits well. Nearby Lens is the cheapest paid option at $1.99 and the only one with an Apple Watch app, which is the practical answer to iOS restricting background Bluetooth scanning. All four detect the same underlying Bluetooth advertisements.
Which smart glasses detector works on Apple Watch?
As of September 2026, Nearby Lens is the only smart glasses detector with a watchOS app. AntiZuck, Glasses Radar and Nearby Glasses Ray-Ban Scanner list no Apple Watch support on their store pages. The Nearby Lens Watch app scans with the Apple Watch's own Bluetooth radio and works with the iPhone out of range.
Is there a free alternative to AntiZuck?
Yes. Glasses Radar is free on iOS and Android, and Nearby Glasses by Yves Jeanrenaud is free and open source on Android. Nearby Lens is not free but costs $1.99 once, less than half AntiZuck's $4.99, and adds an Apple Watch app and Android support.
Why do these apps sometimes flag headphones or a TV?
Bluetooth manufacturer IDs are registered to companies, not individual products, so a TV, printer or pair of headphones can advertise under an ID that also appears on smart glasses. Apps that match on manufacturer ID alone are more prone to this than apps doing full byte-level fingerprint matching. Nearby Lens shows a confidence percentage rather than a yes-or-no verdict, labels ambiguous matches as uncertain, and offers a Strict sensitivity mode that raises the threshold.
Do any of them work when the app is closed?
On Android, yes — foreground services keep scanning. On iOS, Apple restricts background Bluetooth scanning for every app in this category; Glasses Radar states outright that its iOS detection runs while the app is open. Nearby Lens scans in the background within Apple's limits, and its Apple Watch app continues scanning on your wrist, which is the closest thing to a real answer to this constraint.