Snap, the company behind Snapchat and a new pair of $2,195 augmented-reality smart glasses, is finally sharing more about what its glasses can actually do. Details came at a launch event in Los Angeles, where the company also announced a new AI service that anticipates what you want to do while wearing the glasses—or even just using your phone or laptop.
Snap announced its latest Specs in June at the Augmented World Expo tech conference. It says it will begin shipping them to buyers sometime this fall. They are expensive and look huge and heavy to wear, uncomfortable even on Snap CEO Evan Spiegel’s ears when he wore them at the AWE reveal, something he was widely mocked for online and that left people worried about how comfortably these glasses would fit. (Spiegel later posted on X with a picture of his unburdened ear, writing, “that’s just what my ear looks like.”)
Despite that, Spiegel and the company repeatedly reiterated that Snap’s goal with the glasses is to make “computing more human.”
Here are some things you can do with the Specs glasses:
- Take calls via Bluetooth;
- Listen to music on Spotify;
- Capture photos and videos;
- Stream video from services like YouTube and HBO Max (the glasses feature a display);
- Buy stuff on Shopify, where you can view 3D product models, position them in a room, then pay for them;
- Mark up a digital whiteboard so you can brainstorm in the park;
- Translate spoken languages in real time. The glasses can listen to someone speaking to you in a different language and offer the translation through the speakers and as transcribed text on the display. Snap also has a partnership with Tripadvisor that lets you translate reviews, local phrases, and currency. Keep in mind that these kinds of real-time language translators can be hit or miss;
- Shoot hoops. Snap is partnering with the NBA and WNBA to build an interactive basketball experience that works with real-world basketball hoops and balls. The Specs can overlay visual guides and drill cues on real equipment. Similar experiences are available for sports like soccer and golf.
- Wave a magic wand. Thanks to an HBO Max collaboration, Specs can augment the room you’re in to conjure up some virtual Harry Potter paraphernalia, letting you do things like receive a Hogwarts acceptance letter;
- With another person wearing Specs, you can play digital games like chess, ping pong, battleship, and dominoes;
- As you read a real, physical book, you can use the Specs to highlight and save passages or bookmark where you stop;
- Meditate;
- Become a digital DJ.
Snap is also pitching Specs as an enterprise product. It has partnerships with Salesforce, Amazon, and Nvidia to build out features that bring up codes or specs in the wearer’s field of view. They could also be used to find parts on a product or check backstock for an item. (Google similarly had an enterprise version of its Google Glass project but shut it down in 2023.)
Snap seems keen to separate its glasses from the ongoing criticism surrounding camera-equipped smart glasses like the Ray-Ban Meta glasses, which have been called “pervert glasses.” (Ironic, considering Snap popularized the category with its original Spectacles, designed to record hands-free video for Snapchat Stories.) An LED indicator lights up when the cameras are actively capturing video or taking a photo.
Snap representatives have said the Specs “do not record the world to understand it,” noting that the glasses do not use facial recognition to identify people. WIRED found code in Meta’s apps earlier this year indicating the company was experimenting with a facial recognition feature on its smart glasses, but Meta subsequently removed it.
Are We Human?
Snap also wants in on the AI chatbot game. At its event, the company announced a brand-new AI service called Specs Intelligence. The app releases today and will work on iPhone, Mac, and the Specs glasses. You don’t need the glasses to use the app.
Snap calls Specs Intelligence an “anticipatory AI,” meaning it collects data about your day-to-day life and tries to envision what you want to do. The features will sound familiar if you’ve interacted with any AI chatbot that syncs with your calendar, email, or location info. It can help find a hotel, book travel plans, or answer questions.
Snap says its AI service organizes information based on “corners” like work, family, and goals. The AI “builds an understanding of your goals, priorities, relationships, and routines from the apps and tools you choose to connect.” That sounds like a whole lot of data collection will be necessary to build out a holistic picture of what you want in life.
Starting on October 1, people can go to a Specs First Look demo at the Westfield Century City shopping center in Los Angeles to try before they buy.
But Spiegel routinely drums the “making computing more human” line without really reckoning with what its Specs are. Snap wants them to be a social gadget that lets people play games together, but one pair would cost you more than buying a PlayStation 5 for three of your friends. The company wants people to wear them while playing sports, but the glasses are huge and heavy. Will that be comfortable? How do you look down at a soccer ball and keep the glasses on your face?
I guess it’s up to the humans who want to wear them to figure that out.
The post Here’s What Snap’s Expensive Specs Can Actually Do appeared first on Wired.
