Snap Inc. chief executive officer Evan Spiegel unveiled a new version of the company’s Spectacles smart glasses, revitalising an effort to build an advanced augmented reality (AR) product that may one day replace or rival the smartphone.
The glasses, called AR Spectacles, include technology that can overlay digital images and filters onto the physical world. They could eventually provide an additional source of revenue for the messaging company, which currently depends on ads and subscriptions in the Snapchat app.
Spiegel, who unveiled the new glasses at Snap’s annual Partner Summit on Tuesday in Santa Monica, California, said that at launch they’ll only be available to developers interested in building new features for the glasses. While the developers work on building interesting things to do with the glasses, Snap will work on improving their look so that they’re less bulky and easier to use.
“Hundreds of millions of people are using AR on the Snapchat application. But a lot of the feedback we’ve gotten over the years, and a lot of what we’ve felt, is that it’s really bound by screens,” Spiegel said in an interview before the event. “To really unlock the full potential of AR with glasses is something that’s really exciting to us.”
The company also on Tuesday announced an overhaul of its popular Snapchat app, including an updated algorithm for ranking and recommending video content, part of a plan to better compete with rivals like TikTok and Meta Platforms Inc.’s Instagram. The new design will change the look of Snapchat’s home screen, creating more focus on the camera, chat messages with friends and videos, and will combine the app’s two existing video feeds.
Spiegel has been a vocal proponent of augmented reality technology for years; Snap has been building digital image filters for use within its popular Snapchat app since 2015. More than 300 million people use one of Snapchat’s AR filters each day on average, the company said. The AR Spectacles, which are Snap’s fifth generation of the smart glasses, are designed to make that technology hands-free.
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Snap first launched smart glasses in 2016 with embedded cameras, but those video-recording sunglasses failed to catch on. The company only sold about 220,000 pairs and later took a $40 million write-off on the hardware. Snap released new iterations of the glasses in 2018 and 2019, before building its first pair of augmented reality glasses in 2021, though it only ever launched them for developers.
The new AR Spectacles arrive as rival Meta has found success with its own smart glasses. The Ray-Ban Meta glasses, which can record videos, play music and come with a built-in voice assistant, have been a hit with consumers, according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who said the company is struggling to keep up with demand. Those glasses, which debuted in 2021, do not include AR features, but Meta is expected to announce its own AR glasses prototype, called Orion, at its annual developer conference next week.
“I think folks know Snap to be an innovator, but they’ve always been concerned because we’ve been competing in places with very, very large competitors that already have established businesses and a lot of scale,” Spiegel said. “I think what’s really exciting for investors and for our company is to be competing in a space where there isn’t yet an established leader in AR. In fact, I think we are the leader in augmented reality.”
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Snap spent years developing the glasses, which are powered by a new operating system designed specifically for AR, called Snap OS. The social media platform partnered with chipmaker Qualcomm Inc. and ChatGPT-maker OpenAI to provide some of the underlying tech.
Snap’s latest AR glasses will be available to a limited number of developers who apply through Lens Studio, its platform for making augmented reality filters. Developers will have to pay a US$99 monthly fee to use the glasses for one year. After the subscription ends, developers will have to send them back.
Snap plans to roll out additional AR features for advertisers, developers and creators over the coming weeks, including generative AI tools to make augmented reality filters that can appear on Spectacles and within the Snapchat app. The company also announced partnerships with several sports and entertainment venues that plan to use AR images, called Lenses, during live events, including New York Knicks games at Madison Square Garden.
(Updates with details from app’s redesign in fifth paragraph.)
