A pair of augmented-reality glasses marketed as a hands-free way to take calls and read notifications is being recalled after regulators found a heating problem serious enough to burn the people wearing them. The CPSC says INMO Air3 smart glasses can overheat at the temple, the part that rests against the side of the head, posing a burn hazard.
What the recall covers
INMO International Technology Limited’s Air3 smart glasses, sold for $900 to $1,300 on Amazon.com, Inmoxr.com and through a Kickstarter campaign between December 2025 and August 2026, are covered by the September 24, 2026 recall. About 1,643 units were sold in the U.S. and roughly 120 more in Canada.
The Air3 was positioned as a premium wearable, pitched at people who wanted to take calls, read notifications and use augmented-reality features without pulling out a phone. That premium price point is part of why this recall stands out — it’s not a budget gadget bought on impulse, but a device many owners likely researched and saved for before buying.
What’s been reported
CPSC says it has received 10 reports of the glasses overheating, including reports of “a burning sensation to the face and the left side of the ear” during extended use. No units have caused a fire, but the agency is treating the burn risk as serious enough to warrant a full recall rather than a warning.
Ten reports against roughly 1,760 units sold is a meaningful rate for a wearable worn against skin for extended periods. Unlike a phone that can be set down when it gets warm, glasses stay in constant contact with the face and ear during exactly the kind of extended use the product was designed for.
Why the temple is the danger point
The temple piece is the arm of the glasses that runs along the side of the head and tucks behind the ear — it’s also where a lot of the electronics, including the battery and processor, tend to sit in this style of smart glasses to keep the front of the frame lightweight. That’s a design tradeoff: putting heat-generating components against skin that’s thin and sensitive, with no easy way for a wearer to feel a problem building before it becomes painful.
A burn from a device against the ear or temple is also harder to treat casually than one on a hand or arm — the skin there is thinner, and the area is close to hair, both of which can make an overheating incident worse than the same temperature would be elsewhere on the body.
What owners should do
INMO is offering a free repair: the company has released a firmware update to version V3.16 that owners can install, alongside a physical repair for the affected unit. Consumers are told to stop using the glasses immediately and contact INMO’s recall line for instructions rather than continuing to wear them while waiting for a fix.
CPSC’s standard guidance for a burn-hazard recall like this one is to treat the firmware fix as necessary, not optional — a device that’s overheated once under normal use conditions can do it again, so continuing to wear the glasses casually “until the update happens” isn’t the safe middle ground it might seem like.
How this compares to other wearable recalls
Smart glasses are a newer product category than phones or smartwatches, and CPSC has recalled a handful of AR and VR wearables in recent years for similar heat-related issues as manufacturers pack more processing power into smaller, closer-to-skin devices. The pattern tends to be the same: a battery or processor that’s fine in a larger device like a phone becomes a bigger risk when it’s pressed against skin for hours at a time with less room to dissipate heat.
That’s a useful frame for anyone shopping this category going forward — a wearable that promises all-day battery life and full computing features in a glasses-sized frame is making real engineering tradeoffs to get there, and heat management is one of the harder ones to get right.
What to check on your own pair
Owners can confirm they have an affected unit by checking the model designation, Air3, printed on the device or in the companion app, and cross-referencing the purchase window — December 2025 through August 2026 — against their own order history if the model number isn’t visible on the hardware itself.
If the glasses have felt unusually warm at the temple during use, even without reaching a burning sensation, that’s worth treating as an early sign worth stopping use over rather than something to monitor casually.
The broader question for wearable buyers
This recall doesn’t mean every pair of smart glasses on the market carries the same risk — INMO’s specific hardware and thermal design is what’s under scrutiny here, not the category as a whole. But it’s a reminder that a wearable computer pressed against skin for extended periods is a different safety category than a phone in a pocket, and it’s worth asking, before buying, what a company’s return and recall policy looks like if a heat issue does turn up.
For now, the clearest signal is CPSC’s own: stop wearing an affected unit, install the fix INMO provides, and don’t treat “it’s only happened a few times” as a reason to keep using a device that’s already burned other people the same way.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Womens Overview editors prior to publication.