Snap unveils SPECS augmented reality glasses for sale

Snap has unveiled SPECS, a pair of standalone augmented reality glasses available for pre-order in the United States, United Kingdom and France for USD $2,195.

The device is Snap's latest attempt to move its augmented reality work from smartphones to eyewear. Buyers must place a refundable USD $200 deposit, and shipments are expected later this year in those three markets.

Evan Spiegel, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Snap, framed the product in broad terms. "SPECS are the beginning of a new era in computing," he said.

He added: "For decades, computers have asked us to look down, sit still, or step out of the moment. SPECS bring computing into the world around us where we live, work, learn, create, and connect."

The glasses are designed as a fully standalone device rather than one that depends on a phone, external battery pack or wired connection. Snap positioned the product between lightweight smart glasses with limited functions and larger headsets that can be more cumbersome to wear.

The hardware comes in two sizes. The 47mm model weighs 132 grams, while the 52mm version weighs 136 grams. Both support removable prescription inserts.

Snap said the glasses use its own liquid crystal on silicon display system with a 51-degree field of view and 16 million colours. It said that field of view is comparable to a 24-inch desktop display for work or a home cinema-style screen for video viewing.

According to Snap, electrochromic lenses can shift from clear to tinted in 10 seconds. The company also said it redesigned the display waveguide to provide a clearer view with limited distortion.

Processing and battery

The device runs on two Snapdragon processors, with one handling computer vision and the other dedicated to running Lenses, Snap's augmented reality applications. Snap said this setup enables hand tracking and supports motion-to-photon latency of 7 milliseconds.

Battery life is listed at up to four hours of mixed use, including audio and video playback, augmented reality Lenses, AI assistance and Bluetooth notifications. The charging case provides four additional charges, bringing total mixed use to as much as 20 hours.

Spiegel said the company does not see the glasses as a substitute for the physical world. "SPECS are not designed to replace the world," he said. "They're designed to bring computing into it."

Snap said the product supports uses including turn-by-turn directions, spatial measurements, streaming content, screencasting, and collaborative or immersive experiences. It also pointed to existing developer-built Lenses, including tools for sport, music practice and education.

Developer push

Alongside the hardware launch, Snap introduced several software and developer tools tied to SPECS. These include agentic development features for building SPECS Lenses in Lens Studio, with a developer preview rolling out in Claude Code, Codex and Cursor.

It also launched the SPECS Spatial Benchmark, intended to test how AI models perform on spatial tasks in real-world settings. A Migration Agent is designed to help developers move existing projects to SPECS, while a new Native Development Kit lets teams bring their own code and libraries into Lens Studio.

Snap said it has released 10 Snap OS updates over the past year and a half, adding more than 40 features and application programming interfaces. It also said developers have already published hundreds of Lenses for SPECS.

Spiegel linked the product's AI functions to its camera-based design. "With SPECS, AI is not intelligence trapped in a chat box," he said. "It is intelligence that can see what you see, understand what you're trying to do, and help you in the moment."

Privacy questions

As with earlier wearable cameras and smart glasses, privacy is likely to be a central issue for users and regulators. Snap said SPECS include a visible LED indicator when recording, ask for permission before accessing sensitive information and prioritise on-device data processing.

Users can control what is stored, synced, shared or deleted, according to the company. Spiegel addressed that point directly: "SPECS only work if people trust them," he said. "Privacy has to be built in from the very beginning."

Snap said it has spent more than a decade building technology across operating systems, displays, optics, computer vision and developer tools, and has filed more than 7,000 patents during that period. The launch marks one of its most direct efforts yet to turn that investment into a mass-market hardware product.

"The smartphone put our lives in our pockets," Spiegel said. "SPECS put computing into the world, where life actually happens."