The company’s latest glasses, called AR Spectacles, let wearers take images or videos to send through the Snapchat app. — Bloomberg
NEW YORK: Snap Inc is trying, again, to make smart glasses trendy.
The social networking company has been building tech-infused frames for nearly a decade as it attempts to make money in new ways besides advertising.
It’s not alone. Amazon Inc, Alphabet Inc’s Google and Meta Platforms Inc have all tried to make smart glasses a thing, but none of them have gained much traction.
For Snap, maybe the fifth time’s the charm.
The company’s latest glasses, called AR Spectacles, let wearers take images or videos to send through the Snapchat app.
They also include augmented reality technology that can overlay the world with digital filters.
The glasses are mostly designed for software developers, who can get their hands on a pair by applying online and paying US$99 per month for a minimum of 12 months. Snap hopes to eventually sell the glasses to regular consumers as well.
Most of Snap’s US$5bil in revenue comes from advertising, but the company has been looking for other ways to make money.
Chief executive officer Evan Spiegel has said he sees augmented reality (AR) as a way to beat out Snap’s larger rivals, which includes Facebook and Instagram owner Meta.
The company already sells ads on Snapchat that use AR and also hopes to make money from hardware. More than 375,000 developers and creators are using Snap’s AR platform, according to the firm.
Snap’s glasses are clearly meant to compete with Meta, which released its latest smart glasses in partnership with Ray-Ban earlier this year.
While Meta hasn’t shared numbers, it said that sales of the glasses, which don’t include AR but can take photos, record videos and play music, have been better than expected.
News reports also suggest that Meta might unveil AR glasses at its annual developer conference next week.
Snap isn’t new to building smart glasses, but it’s had trouble selling them. The company launched its first pair of video-recording sunglasses, called Spectacles, in 2016.
The glasses initially got attention for their colourful frames and because they were sold through pop-up vending machines.
But again, consumers didn’t bite, and the company had to take a US$40mil writedown on unsold inventory.
At first glance, Snap’s AR Spectacles look and feel like normal sunglasses, with a black finish and rectangular frames.
But they have much thicker bands and lenses to accommodate two Qualcomm chips, along with tiny projectors that place digital filters in front of a wearer’s eyes.
The glasses also have hand-tracking technology and augmented reality features that are powered by Snap OS, a new operating system the company designed.
In addition to the glasses themselves, the package includes a lens cover, glasses case and USB charging cable.
The AR Spectacles connect to your phone through the Snapchat app, so you don’t need many accessories to get up and running.
The frames have two physical buttons: one that lets you capture videos, and another that powers the device on and off.
The glasses also include a blinking LED light that flashes whenever you’re taking a photo or recording a video, as a courtesy to passersby.
Other than those buttons, the glasses are controlled almost entirely by your hands.
For most things you can use your hands like a computer cursor to select, drag, rotate or resize digital objects, among other actions.
The hand tracking technology is mostly easy to use, a few hiccups notwithstanding.
In a Lego game, for example, you’re able to grab virtual lego bricks and stack them on top of each other using your hands.
You can also box, play golf and walk a virtual dog. It’s all genuinely fun, even if the selection is limited. — Bloomberg
