“The tiny smartphone limited our imagination,” Spiegel said in his keynote at the Augmented World Expo conference in Long Beach, Calif. “It’s clear that today’s devices and user interfaces are woefully inadequate to realize the full potential of AI.”
The company did not share photos of the Specs frames or provide information on pricing. As part of the Specs announcement, Snapchat shared that operating system partnerships with OpenAI and Google Gemini will extend into experiences for the glasses.
That said, Meta’s glasses do not have AR capabilities; rather, the glasses have audio-based AI features as well as photo and video capability. Meta has said it will release its Orion AR glasses in 2027, with technology that will allow users to scan their Threads feeds with eye tracking hardware.
Still, Snapchat did not share what the glasses will cost consumers. Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses, which do not have AR capabilities, cost between $239 and $303 so it’s reasonable to assume the Specs’ prices will be steeper due to the hardware requirements.
The style and comfort of the glasses are also likely to be critical, with consumers having repeatedly demonstrated an aversion to bulky- or geeky-looking smart glasses and headsets. With its 2026 launch date, Snap has thrust itself back into the conversation, but success will rest on whether it can produce a product consumers actually want to wear.
