First Glasgow was created through FirstGroup's buyout of Strathclyde Buses (created from the former Greater Glasgow Passenger Transport Executive bus fleet, formerly the municipal Glasgow Corporation Transport), which had itself recently bought out the former Kelvin Central Buses (an amalgamation of Kelvin Scottish and Central Scottish, owned by the state-owned Scottish Bus Group).

Buses were installed with free Wi-Fi and were branded with SimpliCITY logos, while routes were simplified in order to make more frequent journeys in and out of the city centre.

A Low Emission Zone (LEZ) covering Glasgow city centre was introduced on 31 December 2018; the first phase of this applying solely to local service buses.

[15][16][17] 22 more Enviro200EVs were later delivered to Caldeonia depot in November 2021, which were used as shuttle buses for the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference being held in the city,[18][19] followed by a repeat order for 50 more in September 2022.

The Larkfield depot in Glasgow's Govanhill[27] closed on 18 October 2014,[28] with all staff, buses and services moving to a new purpose-built facility on the site of the former Gushetfaulds railfreight terminal on nearby Cathcart Road.

[33][34] First Glasgow operates an "exact fare" payment policy which was also used by predecessors Trans Clyde and Strathclyde Buses.