Spectacles (product)

Spectacles are standalone AR glasses developed and released by Snap Inc. The latest generation is not directly linked to the Snapchat app, and serves as a standalone device where users can install AR applications, called Lenses. They connect to the Spectacles mobile app and allow users to interact with Lenses for a variety of purposes, such as learning, gameplay, and utility. Spectacles feature built-in cameras and sensors to enable hand-based interactions, track spatial placement of people and environments, and record AR-enhanced video.
The first Spectacles were released in 2016 and have undergone numerous revisions and upgrades since, with the most recent fifth generation released in September 2024.
In December 2014 Snap Inc., then Snapchat Inc., acquired Vergence Labs the developers of the Epiphany Eyewear smartglasses. Vergence Labs was founded by entrepreneur Erick Miller in 2011 before Google Glass was announced. Miller worked on the idea as a graduate student at UCLA and poured his life savings into building the product. Snapchat was impressed with the Epiphany Eyewear product and the great team assembled by Miller, and acquired Vergence to develop a similar eyewear product.
Epiphany Eyewear which recorded wide-angle point-of-view videos, had been positioned as Vergence's first step toward eventually building full featured augmented reality glasses which, according to Miller, would someday "give people what would previously be called superpowers". However, due to Vergence's small engineering team (consisting of founder ceo Erick Miller, co-founder Jon Rodriguez, software engineer Peter Brook, and designer / mechanical engineer David Meisenholder), the company had to scale back its ambitions in order to ship its simpler first product, Epiphany Eyewear, which the team was able to successfully ship despite their extremely limited funding and team size. The successful development and launch of their product led to the company being noticed by Snapchat, which quietly acquired them, bringing them in-house to develop a similar but much more refined eyewear product for Snapchat.
In October 2015, a leaked online video showed an early version of the new glasses, dubbed "Spectacles." on mid 2016, news outlets reported that Snapchat was hiring engineers from Microsoft, Nokia and Qualcomm. Reporters speculated that the hires were to build the new glasses.
The new product was unveiled on September 24, 2016, and released on November 10, 2016. The glasses were sold through Snapbot, a proprietary vending machine for the smartglasses, which was located near Snap's headquarters in Venice, Los Angeles.
In May 2017, a Snapchat patent became public which included an illustration of a hypothetical future version of Spectacles with augmented reality capabilities.
In late 2017, Snapchat wrote off $40m worth of unsold Spectacles inventory and unused parts. As of May 2018, the company sold 220,000 pairs, which was less than initially expected. In April 2018, the company launched Spectacles 2.0, which included additional colors, lighter frames, the option of mirrored lenses, and the removal of the bright yellow ring around the camera window.
In June 2018, Snap released an update for Spectacles allowing users to export videos from the glasses in square or widescreen format.
In November 2018, it was reported that the company would release a new version of Spectacles by year end 2018 that included two cameras. The Snap Spectacles 3, which did feature two HD cameras on-device, were ultimately announced in August 2019.
In May 2021, Snap announced its first AR-based product called Spectacles 4. The AR effects are officially referred to as Lenses and feature dual 3D waveguide display with a 26.3-degree diagonal field of view. It runs on the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR1 chip and has 2 RGB cameras, 4 microphones, and 2 stereo speakers. Snap claimed to have more than 250,000 Lens creators who created 2.5 million Lenses altogether. AR experiences available on the glasses as of December 2021 included "a zombie chase, a pong game, Solar System projection, and an interactive art piece." Additionally, according to The Verge, "Another new software update brings Connected Lenses to Spectacles, letting multiple pairs interact with the same Lens when sharing a Wi-Fi network."
On September 17th, 2024, the fifth generation Spectacles AR glasses were unveiled by Snap Inc. CEO Evan Spiegel at the company's Snap Partner Summit event. This version of Spectacles was notable for being fully standalone (i.e. not requiring a phone tether or physical cable connection), for debuting see-through waveguide displays, and for its advanced environment and hand tracking capabilities. The release also marked the introduction of Snap OS, a dedicated operating system for Spectacles. This version weighs 226 grams.
The original version of the glasses included a camera lens with a 115° field of view (110° on V2) and records in a circular format that adapts to a smartphone's screen size and orientation. The smartglasses record when the user presses a button on the top left of its frame, for a maximum of 30 seconds (in 10 second intervals). They sync with its designated smartphone via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. The camera also houses a ring of LED lights that indicates battery level and when they are recording. The pair of glasses charge in a yellow case that has a built-in battery and connects to its proprietary cable. The cable can be attached either to the case or directly to the glasses. According to the manufacturer, the fully charged case will hold enough power to recharge the glasses four times. The lithium-ion batteries in both the case and the glasses draw power from a standard 5 volt USB power supply, and connect via a USB cable which is held in place by small magnets.
Over successive generations, Spectacles have seen significant hardware advancements:
The fifth generation Spectacles offers a 46° diagonal field of view with 37 pixels per degree of resolution. Wearers view through dual-display see-through lenses using optical waveguides, while liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) projectors map AR content onto the real world. These AR effects have a 13ms latency 6DoF and 120Hz late stage reprojection frequency. The standalone glasses do not require the use of a smartphone or tether device, utilizing two Snapdragon processors developed by Qualcomm. Spectacles can run for 45 minutes on one battery charge.
Spectacles are designed to integrate seamlessly with Snapchat.
Later generations of Spectacles (fourth and fifth generation) have been primarily distributed only to developers and creators to encourage the development of AR content.
A Snapbot is a pop-up vending machine developed and manufactured by Snap Inc. It was designed for the distribution of Spectacles. Snapbot first appeared on November 10, 2016, in Venice, Los Angeles, and was then located in Big Sur, California. Snapbot was relocated to different locations in the U.S. for several months after the release of Spectacles. In February 2017, Snapchat began selling Spectacles online.