Earlier this year, after Google announced Google Glass, a porn company called MiKandi immediately released the first porn app for Glass. Called Tits & Glass, it was the Instagram of homemade porn, allowing Glass users to shoot, share, and vote on porn videos. Immediately afterward, Google decreed that no porn apps will be allowed to run on its Glass eyewear, and MiKandi was forced to pull the app. Now the company is trying again–and there are implications for everyone.

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For all their policies, big tech companies can’t keep porn companies–notorious early adopters–completely off their platforms. And experimentation in the porn industry has a way of finding copycats in bedrooms all over the world. When this technology democratizes and imitators begin springing up, the connection between flirting apps, dating apps, hookup-finders, and virtual sex-bots will begin to coalesce, creating new, strange and shockingly intimate ways to fool around with other people–whether they’re in the same room or not. Follow us down the rabbit hole that is the future of porn, and you’ll find yourself implicated in ways you ever imagined. This time around, MiKandi (which runs an Android-based porn app store) has contracted porn superstars Andy San Dimas and James Deen to be the world’s first couple to shoot an adult scene using Google Glass. It may not be the most romantic story, but it’s a tale of an Internet business trying to keep up with trends, even as the platform makers find more ways to single them out for exclusion. And when you stop and think about what these companies are inventing, you get the feeling that this experiment is an uncanny extension of the apps that we use in our “normal” dating lives today, like Tinder or Chatroulette. Is this what the future holds for all of us? Tech And Porn Have Always Been (Secret) Friends Despite what Google may wish, porn and technology have always gone hand in hand. Plate-glass negatives still exist from porn pictures taken with cameras circa 1900. Same goes for film shot on celluloid: Pornographic movies were being made side by side with the silent films of the 1920s. In the 1980s, it was home video porn that in part helped to make VCRs so popular. And in the 1990s some of the staunchest backers of the transition from VHS to DVD were pornography companies. In 1994, when AOL had the dream of getting the Internet into every home in America, porn companies dreamt of streaming porn right to your computer whenever you wanted it. Not only does porn love technology, it loves the latest technology–even before most consumers do. And today, the latest technology is wearable tech, which offers the ultimate in vicarious pleasure: radically lifelike point-of-view porn.

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POV is a trick used in both Hollywood filmmaking and adult filmmaking to let the viewer feel like the camera’s eyes are theirs. The problem is, no matter how skilled the Hollywood cinematographer or the porn videographer, traditional POV shots don’t have a true lifelikeness because the camera is still too big to get intimate, close-up line-of-sight shots as we would see with our naked eyes. Glass changes that. And while the quality of Glass-shot video isn’t good enough for Hollywood blockbusters, it’s more than good enough for porn. (And the occasional NCAA basketball star, documenting POV celebrity experiences.) And that’s why MiKandi CEO Jesse Adams jumped at the chance to shoot the world’s first Google Glass porn as soon as he got a pair of the high-tech specs. If Your Glass Porn App Is Banned…Use Glass To Shoot Your Porn MiKandi is the world’s largest adult app store. Launched for the Android platform in 2009, MiKandi now offers over 8,000 adult apps, generates over a million downloads a month, and has over 4 million users–with another 3,000 users being added each day. Adams tells me he started the store with a few friends from Seattle who had experience in both the mobile and the pornography industries. “We knew we wanted to build something together that combines sex and tech, so when the idea of an adult app store came up, it was just one of those great ideas with huge potential that we had to jump on. One of our cofounders also had foresight to predict the rise of Android way before anyone really cared about it, so we made a smart bet on developing for this platform early on.” But despite Adams’s embrace of Google’s then-fledgling OS, Google hasn’t been so embracing of Adams’s first endeavor onto the company’s new Glass platform. “When we first announced that we received our Glass device and were developing an app for it, we paid careful attention to Google’s Glass Platform Developer Policies,” Adams says. “At the time, there were no restrictions on adult content, so we went full speed ahead on our adult app for Google Glass. The weekend before we officially announced our app, Google quietly revised their terms to prohibit sexually explicit material on Glassware. As soon as we learned of this update, we voluntarily disabled our app. Although we acted swiftly and made changes to the app to be compliant with the new terms, Google refused to re-enable our app.” When I ask Adams why Google didn’t re-enable his toned-down Tits & Glass app that complied with Google’s new guidelines, he says he’s still not sure. “We called Google several times to ask questions about the ban,” Adams says, “but it was clear that the rep on the phone wasn’t allowed to say much to us (it was clearly scripted responses drafted by their legal team). He could neither deny or confirm that we were banned or address any of the specific reasons about what caused the ban and what we could to resubmit and get our app approved.”

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“But,” Adams adds, “while developers cannot share Glass apps that serve sexually explicit content, there doesn’t seem to be any terms that prohibit users from shooting their own adult content.” So that’s exactly what he did next. Shooting Porn With Glass Is… Different Actress Andy San Dimas says there were plenty of differences shooting porn with Glass versus traditional methods. “Oh God, it was super awkward,” she laughs. “When I saw the footage of me trying to get a good shot…while being shot…” Then she trails off. “I also looked really unattractive in them.” But professional porn can be almost acrobatic in ways; things can get rough. Wasn’t she worried about the Glasses falling off while in action? “Nope,” she says. “It was all softcore, though. A lot of times I even forgot I was wearing them because they were so light.” Thought San Dimas admits to me she heard of Google Glass before the shoot, she said she’d never given the device much thought because she’s not really into technology. Interestingly, however, it’s technology that has recently put her in the spotlight for another reason. On July 21st she showed up at a Pittsburgh Pirates game wearing a team jersey and unicorn head, then proceeded to do a little dance for the cameras. This got her thrown out of the stadium and arrested. At the police station, one of the uniformed officers decided to wear the unicorn head and pose with San Dimas for a picture, which then made it onto social media sites, leading to that officer’s suspension. Since the actors are now the cinematographers, Adams says they had to learn to be more aware of their movements. “There is no zoom function, so zooming in literally means putting your face up close in the action–and by action I mean pink parts,” he says. “What I thought was interesting was to see how the performers reacted to using the Glass. At the end of the day, the performer wants to deliver a great show that’s authentic and sexy, so wearing the Glass was distracting at first–make sure the other person is feeling good, make sure they look good, make sure the Glasses are still on and recording, make sure they are using the Glass correctly, et cetera,” he says. Glass May Be The Future Of Your Sex Life So Glass is easy enough for porn stars to use without training–what about normal people?

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“We all viewed the videos on the Glass–[they are all] stored on the device–and everyone at the shoot commented on how enjoyable it was to actually view the porn we just shot on the Glass itself,” Adams says. “And although from the performer’s POV it might have felt awkward at first to use Glass, from the viewer’s POV, the videos definitely feel very intimate and personal. It’s a shame that [porn apps are] banned, so other Glass users can’t experience that yet.” That begs the question: What happens when Glass gets cheaper and more democratized? What happens when people “jailbreak” it? Or if Google ever lifts its Glass porn ban? Adams thinks it may lead to a different kind of future for couples’ apps. “[Glass] is a communication device, so I see couples sending each other flirty teaser videos and messages throughout the day. Or perhaps your favorite pornstar/live cam model will notify you when they’re online or send you quick screenshots of their live show. Adult games that encourage foreplay with couples throughout the day would also be a lot of fun on Glass.” That would change everything for couples used to apps like Pair or flirtatious utilities like Snapchat. “I think the future of porn will be completely immersive virtual experiences that will allow anyone to act out any fantasy,” he says. “People will be able to have sex with anyone they can imagine. Likewise, couples can use the same technology to have sex with each other anytime anywhere (having sex with the virtual you or the real you controlling the virtual version). There will be sex toy-like robots that can react, listen, and give you the exact pleasure you want to enhance these virtual experiences. These devices will understand and measure your arousal levels, body fluids, your breathing patterns, your body movements. They will also learn and adapt and react to your feedback.” If that isn’t immersive enough, Adams says feedback is next. Imagine what devices like the Myo armband could do if hacked for pleasure. “I think the biggest innovation here will be two-way sex toys that can send and receive feedback. We already have devices like Leap Motion that can track your fingers and detect complicated finger and hand gestures,” he says. “Imagine 10 years from now where this type of technology will allow someone to give you a handjob virtually. Not only will you feel her hand squeezing and moving as if she’s right there touching you, she will also receive tactile feedback that your penis is getting harder and stronger and that you’re enjoying her touch.”

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And there you have it folks. A virtual old-fashioned might just be in your future–if Apple and Google don’t stop them first. [Photos courtesy of MiKandi.com]