Snap Evan Spiegel CEO is with new lightweight smart glasses next year, in the race to overcome Meta and Google to Market
Snapchat, who has long been known for the weight of the feather in Legue of Big Tech Giants, hopes at the best cases of Meta, Google and Apple by launching its new, enhanced smart reality glasses, and possibly for years, before the big players.
Speaking at a conference on Tuesday, CEO of Snap Evan Spiegel said that the company will issue a new version of its glasses equipped with the camera next year, which will include an improved interactive digital screen inside the lens. The date of the 2026 version will be before Meta, which is planning to issue AR Orion glasses In 2027, while Google did not make an appointment for it Android XR glasses.
“The small smartphone has restricted our imagination,” Spiel said at the Audit International Exhibition Conference in Long Beach, California.
New “Snapchat Specs” Snap said it would be lightweight and AI. They will allow users to look at things in the real world and take advantage of artificial intelligence to access information, such as translating ingredients on a poster of foreign languages. Snap said that the glasses will allow users to interact with the objects on the lens, noting examples such as playing video games with an eye eyebrow.
The company did not share pictures of the specifications tires or provides information about pricing. As part of the specifications advertisement, Snapchat has shared that the operating system partnerships with Openai and Google Gemini will extend to glasses experiences.
If Snap continues on the promise to launch 2026, it will be the first large technical company to shop with the pre -reinforced reality glasses for the prevailing consumers, as it demands early progress in the race to create behind the smartphone – a competition related to everyone from Meta, Google and Apple, to the Chatgpt Openai maker, which recently announced the previous Jonny Jony Jony Jony.
A pioneer in the glasses worker, Snap Waves made with the version of its “glasses” in 2016. The unconventional glasses were equipped with a camera that allowed users to publish photos and short videos directly to their Snapchat extract. But in recent years, Snap appeared by Meta, which has partnered with Essilorluxotica to launch Ray-Ban Smart glasses. Although Meta did not participate in Ray-Ban glasses, Essilorluxotica has noticed that companies have sold more than two billion cups since their appearance in 2023. Luxotica plans to increase common brand glasses to 10 million units by 2026, indicating that companies are pleased with the results of glasses and their capabilities.
However, Meta glasses do not have the AR capabilities; Instead, glasses have sound -based AI features as well as the ability of photos and videos. Meta said it will issue Orion AR glasses in 2027, with technology that will allow users to wipe their thread extracts with eye tracking devices.
Other technology giants have glasses in their eyes, too. At the IO developer conference in May, Google announced that it will join the smart glasses market through partnership with Warby Parker. It is reported that the Apple, which failed the Visionpro headphone that failed to reach consumers worth $ 3500, is releasing smart glasses next year and simulating the current version of Bans Meta, while working on more advanced AR glasses that are still years away, According to Bloomberg.
Declaration of specifications follows a turbulent financial period for Snapchat. After years of worrying financial statements, Snapchat appears settle And the increase in free cash flow in the last quarter. The glasses are partially a voltage of revenue diversification as the company is published by ads on its social network.
However, Snapchat did not share the cost of consumer glasses. The cost of Meta Ray-Ban glasses, which does not contain AR capabilities, ranges between $ 239 and $ 303, so it is reasonable to assume that specifications will be more severe due to the requirements of the devices.
It is also possible that the style and comfort of the glasses will be very important, as consumers have repeatedly showed an aversion to smart glasses, huge headphones or an eccentric genius. Through the launch date of 2026, Snap pushed the conversation, but success will be based on whether it can produce consumers who really want to wear.
This story was originally shown on Fortune.com
