Evan Spiegel ties Snap’s future to Specs

Evan Spiegel says Snap can’t fully deliver on its long-running goal—moving computing off a screen and into everyday life—without its new AR glasses, called Specs. Snap plans to ship the $2,195 device this fall, taking preorders with a refundable $200 deposit,

For a moment at the AWE augmented reality conference, Evan Spiegel didn’t talk like a CEO promoting a gadget. He spoke like someone defending a mission.

Snap’s cofounder and CEO used the keynote to announce that his company will release Specs, its new AR-enabled glasses. Snap intends to ship the glasses this fall for $2,195 and is taking preorders.

Spiegel’s insistence was personal and pointed: he believes Specs aren’t a distraction from Snap’s core business—they are the next step in what Snap has been trying to do for years. Its stock has fallen more than 90% from its peak. and the company has already made multiple rounds of major layoffs. including in August 2022. February 2024. and last April. It also shed several noncore activities along the way. including work involving original short shows. social mapping. music creation. a selfie drone. and enterprise services.

Even with all that turbulence behind it, Spiegel argues the glasses project is not optional if Snap wants to realize its vision.

“If you look at the history of the company. we’ve been laser focused on trying to make computing more human. ” Spiegel said. “Some of the early innovations were things like ephemeral messaging that make conversation more like face-to-face. and stories that put content in chronological order. These are the sorts of things that we think have helped make your smartphone feel more human. But fundamentally. we believe that until we get computing off a screen and into the world where humans live. it’s really hard to fully realize that vision.”.

That goal reaches back further than the current Specs headline suggests. Spiegel traced his interest to his time as a Stanford student. when he said he had seen prototypes of AR headsets “that really looked like giant helmets.” He described the promise as being able to use computing through a see-through lens rather than a screen. calling it “really exciting and interesting.”.

While Specs may feel like a fresh bet. Snap’s smart-glasses investment is tied to earlier products and even an acquisition. Depending on how you count the timeline. the effort began nearly a decade ago when Snap shipped its first product in the category. known as Spectacles. followed by four subsequent versions. In 2014, Snap also acquired Vergence Labs, a tiny startup that had already crowdfunded and shipped a product called Epiphany Eyewear.

Before the launch, Snap moved to sharpen focus. Earlier this year, in preparation for Specs’ launch, Snap spun the business into a subsidiary called Specs Inc., and said the benefits ranged from operational focus to more distinct branding to the possibility of outside investment.

But the link to Snapchat is not just corporate structure. Spiegel framed Specs as philosophically and technically connected to the app.

Snapchat has long been one of the world’s most popular augmented reality products. Snap says 450,000-plus developers have created more than 5 million AR experiences for Snapchat, called Lenses. Those Lenses are used 9 billion times a day. Spiegel pointed to how Snapchat brings AR directly to users by showing what the camera sees when the app launches. placing AR effects just a tap away.

“That’s one of the things that’s always been unique about Snapchat. that we’ve opened the app into your own experience of the world and invited you to use Lenses. ” Spiegel said. “Some of those original founding ideas are mirrored with glasses. When you put on glasses, you’re seeing the world through your perspective, not entering a feed of content.”.

With Specs, Snap is trying to make that AR canvas bigger than what a phone can deliver. Snap describes the device as “a computer. ” and Spiegel says it can support more ambitious applications than a smartphone-sized app—ranging from a virtual floating web browser complete with video streaming. immersive mapping. car repair tutorials. and floating recipes for cooking.

Behind the scenes, Specs also leans on tools Snap built for Snapchat. Snap’s Lens Studio development platform and the Commerce Kit monetization engine are part of the Specs foundation. Spiegel said Snap’s years of labor in getting AR to work smoothly across the phones its users own also helped it bring that capability to the computing resources in the glasses.

“It’s really battle-hardened the overall platform, because our rendering engine is running on lots of smartphones all over the world, including low-end smartphones with very limited compute,” he said.

Specs is not the first stop for Snap on the road to wearable computing. In 2016, Spectacles were colorful sunglasses with a built-in camera that could record 10-second video clips. Sold at $130 and even distributed through vending machines. they were treated as a quirky impulse item—and Snap ultimately took a $40 million write-off on unsold units and unused components. It still released upgraded versions in 2018 and 2019.

The biggest leap came in 2021. when the first version with displays and AR overlays added the ability to let users interact via hand gestures. Instead of selling that version, Snap gave it for free to hundreds of creators. Those creators provided feedback to the Spectacles product team, keeping the idea alive.

Then Snap pushed the concept further in 2024 with a more ambitious Spectacles version that included an AI voice assistant as well as AR features. Still in experimentation mode, Snap made that iteration available only to developers, who paid a subscription fee to access it. Spiegel said he demoed several experiences at the time, describing them as “intriguing good fun.”.

The new Specs version is a noticeable evolution from the 2024 Spectacles. It is 40% lighter, has more than five times the claimed battery life, and offers a wider field of view. Snap says Specs are still chunky. but no longer resemble a “Cybertruck affixed to your face.” Specs are also self-contained. with no external battery pack. no input device other than hands. and no dependency on a smartphone for computing brains.

Snap says Specs weigh 132 grams for the 47mm size and 136 grams for the 52mm size, and are designed for prescription lenses. The included battery case can charge the glasses up to four times, enabling 20 total hours of on-the-go use. Snap also says Specs offer up to four hours of life on a charge.

The $2,195 price and the question of adoption hang over all of it.

Spiegel rejected the idea that Specs are meant to replace smartphones. During the metaverse mania of a few years ago, he said, it was easy to find people—Mark Zuckerberg among them—arguing that smart glasses were destined to replace smartphones. Spiegel does not make that claim for Specs.

“At this point, we see it as more of a complement to your existing devices, just like the smartphone didn’t replace the laptop or the desktop,” he said.

Instead of trying to beat existing gadgets. he described Specs as something people use to extend their computing into their environment. When traveling, he said he misses his desktop monitor and uses Specs as an immersive display to stay productive. The father of four sons also described running around outside with the glasses and doing things with his kids. including learning about dinosaurs and playing a version of laser tag.

Ultimately, he said, the most important applications will likely come from third-party developers. Spiegel compared it to the early days of the iPhone, saying Apple had not imagined products like Uber or Snapchat when the device launched.

“For me, what’s so fun about Specs is seeing all of these amazing creative experiences that I never would have thought of myself,” Spiegel said.

That dependency—developers will build if there are enough users—pushes the spotlight back to the price tag.

Snap’s Specs cost $2,195. Spiegel described the pricing as “a real engineering milestone” and said Snap put “a lot of effort into” reaching it. He also pointed to Apple Vision Pro’s $3. 500 price and referenced Apple’s original 1984 Macintosh. saying it sold for the inflation-adjusted equivalent of $8. 000.

Still, he conceded there’s no magic point yet. “In future generations, we’d like to be able to either come up with different versions of Specs or to be able to develop other ways to reduce the cost of the device, so that more people can enjoy it,” Spiegel said.

Whether that becomes necessary depends on what people do with the glasses once they have them—and whether they can see a reason to pay for them.

IDC says the smart glasses category is dominated by Meta. with AI-infused Ray-Bans and Oakleys accounting for 69% of units shipped. and no other player managing more than 3.4%. IDC forecasts that optical see-through glasses—the subcategory Specs fall into—will grow from 3 million units shipped this year to 12.2 million in 2030. It also expects average selling prices in that area to land between $516 and $547, making Specs a clear outlier.

For now, the preorder setup asks customers to commit without seeing everything firsthand. Preordering Specs requires both a refundable $200 deposit and a leap of faith on a pricey, sight-unseen product. Spiegel said Snap plans to focus on helping “as many people as possible try Specs.”

He offered a final note that feels like a wager: the story of Specs may take time. the way earlier consumer launches did. Forty-two years after Apple’s original Macintosh. people no longer need an inflation-adjusted $8. 000 to buy a Mac—today. Spiegel cited a MacBook Neo priced at $595. And even a decade after the original Spectacles, the big idea is still early.

The tension at the heart of the announcement is clear. Snap wants Specs to be more than a side project, more than another gadget that joins the lineup and disappears. Spiegel is betting that only by moving computing off screens—and into the everyday world—can Snap fully deliver the computing “more human” vision he says has guided the company for years.

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