LensSentry
vs Nearby Glasses.
Nearby Glasses deserves the historical credit: it started this category. Its early-2026 launch — free, on Android — is what put "an app can warn you about camera glasses" into TechCrunch and 404 Media, and everything since, our app included, walks a trail it opened.
It's also the easiest comparison on this site, because the two apps barely share a platform. Mostly, your phone chooses for you.
Where they agree.
The physics, and the honesty it requires. Both listen for the Bluetooth advertising frames camera glasses broadcast and match them against a library of known signatures — Ray-Ban Meta, Snap Spectacles and more, with both libraries updated as new hardware ships. Both are heard-a-signal detectors, which means both inherit the same truths: a detection is not proof of recording, and glasses already paired and idle can be silent.
Where they part.
| Platform | The whole ballgame. Nearby Glasses is Android; LensSentry is iPhone and Mac. For most people this page is settled by the device already in their hand. |
| Price | Nearby Glasses is free. LensSentry is $2.99 one-time. On Android, free-and-first is a fine deal — we'd take it too. |
| Background scanning | Android permits scanning with the screen off in ways iOS doesn't, and an Android detector gets to use that. On iPhone, LensSentry scans while open and says so plainly — an iOS rule we'd rather state than hide. |
| False positives | Coverage of Nearby Glasses has noted a hard problem we know well: a Bluetooth company ID isn't unique to glasses, so a naive match can flag earbuds or a VR headset from the same manufacturer. It's why LensSentry reports in graded language — Possible, Likely — with a confidence behind it, and why our signature list is verified against the Bluetooth SIG registry and real-world captures rather than manufacturer IDs alone. No detector escapes this tradeoff; the difference is how it's communicated. |
| After a detection | LensSentry keeps an exportable session log — first seen, last seen, peak signal — that survives after scanning stops. If you may need to show someone what your phone heard, that's the feature you'll want to have had. |
| Beyond the phone | LensSentry's free Mac menu-bar build covers the fixed-place case — a front desk, a studio — where a desktop is allowed to listen continuously. |
Which one?
Choose Nearby Glasses if
You carry an Android phone. It's free, it was first, its signature library has kept pace, and Android's background scanning permissions genuinely suit this job. We don't have an Android app to sell you yet, and pretending otherwise would be exactly what this site promises not to do.
Choose LensSentry if
You carry an iPhone — Nearby Glasses isn't an option there — or you want a Mac watching a fixed room. $2.99 buys graded confidence instead of a raw match, an exportable log, muting for your own glasses, and signatures that update themselves.
Either way, know what you're trusting: how detection works explains when glasses announce themselves and when they don't.
The iPhone answer.
LensSentry listens for Ray-Ban Meta, Oakley Meta, Snap Spectacles and Echo Frames — $2.99 one-time, on-device, no accounts, no tracking, honest about its limits on the radar screen itself.