Snap is making its boldest hardware push yet with Specs, a pair of augmented reality glasses priced at $2,195 plus a $200 refundable deposit. The move puts Evan Spiegel’s post-smartphone vision front and center, even as the company faces a market that is still small and highly competitive.
Spiegel told CNBC that people may be ready to rethink how they compute nearly 20 years after the iPhone launched. He described Specs as a way to use computing together in shared real-world experiences, with see-through lenses instead of an opaque screen.
A more ambitious bet than the old Spectacles
Specs is Snap’s first AR device aimed at consumers rather than developers. That marks a sharp turn from the $130 camera-only Spectacles that debuted in 2016 and never became a hit.
The new glasses are expected to ship later this year in the U.S., U.K. and France. Snap also says the device is lighter, has a larger display than the earlier developer-focused version of Spectacles, and offers nearly four hours of battery life along with Bluetooth connectivity.
Competing in a market with deeper pockets
Snap is entering a space where rivals have more financial room to experiment. Meta’s Reality Labs has found some success with Ray-Ban Meta glasses made with EssilorLuxottica, while Google showed off upcoming AI-powered glasses in May with Samsung, Warby Parker and Gentle Monster.
Spiegel dismissed audio-only smart glasses as little more than “a phone accessory or an open-ear headphone.” He called Specs “the most capable, most aware and most accessible spatial computer that’s available today.”
Pressure from Wall Street and the price tag
Snap has not had the same cushion as Meta or Google. The company has lost money every year since becoming public, and its shares fell around 4% in midday trading after the Specs announcement, according to CNBC.
Analyst Jitesh Ubrani, a research manager for IDC, said the timing is difficult for any premium product launch because inflation is weighing on consumer confidence. He also noted that Snap’s core audience has traditionally skewed young, which may make the price harder to absorb.
What Snap is building next
Snap created a subsidiary called Specs Inc. in January to house AR glasses development. Spiegel said investors should view the launch as another step in a long-term plan that is meant to serve the company’s community and customers.
The company is also opening the device to developers, who will be able to create AI agent-like experiences using a preview feature that integrates with Anthropic’s Claude Code, OpenAI’s Codex and Cursor’s coding tools. Snap also plans to release parenting tools later this year to make it easier to share Specs with teenagers using a more limited set of Lenses and some operating system features.
Spiegel, who said he has been testing Specs at home with his family, argued that shared AR can make play more social. He pointed to uses like laser tag, learning about dinosaurs and building Legos as examples of what see-through computing could make possible.
