Snap Inc., the company behind Snapchat, today announced the latest version of its Spectacles AR Glasses. The company is calling them Spectacles '24. The new device makes significant improvements to field of view, resolution, and hand tracking, and overhauls the software stack. But it's still limited enough to remain developer-oriented. Spectacles '24 is available starting today, and the company is selling it to developers for $100 per month ($1,200 total) for a one-year commitment.
More than three years after launching the Spectacles 4, the first product in its Spectacles line to include displays and true AR capabilities, Snap Inc is doubling down on its next-generation AR glasses. Spectacles '24 makes significant improvements as it moves toward a consumer-ready version of such a device.
Spectacles '24 Specs and Pricing
The Spectacles '24 are a standalone pair of AR glasses. This means that everything that runs the device is built directly into the glasses, and nothing needs to be connected to the device. Here's a look at the Spectacles '24's features side by side with the previous generation.
| Spectacles '24 | Glasses 4 | |
Images |
||
| View | 2×LCoS | |
| Resolution | unknown | 480×564 |
| Pixels/degree (claimed) | 37 | unknown |
| Refresh Rate | 120Hz | unknown |
| Optical | Waveguide (transparent with dynamic dimming) | Waveguide (transparent) |
| Field of view (claimed) | 46° (diagonal) | 26.3° (diagonal) |
| Optical Adjustments | IPD (software tuning) | unknown |
| IPD Setting Range | 57mm to 71mm | unknown |
Performance and IO |
||
| Processor | 2×Snapdragon (unspecified) | Snapdragon XR1 |
| Data warehouse | unknown | unknown |
| To store | unknown | 32GB |
| Connection | Wi-Fi 6, GPS/GNSS | unknown |
| Connectors | USB-C | USB-C |
| Entrance | Hand tracking, voice, smartphone controller | Hand tracking |
| Sound | In-ear speakers | In-ear speakers |
| Microphone | 6× | 4× |
| Battery Life | 45 minutes (extendable with external battery) | 30 minutes (case can last up to four charges) |
| Weight | 226 grams | 134 grams |
Perception |
||
| Headset tracking | Inside out (no external markings) 13ms latency |
Inside out (no external markings) |
| Eye tracking | NO | NO |
| Expression monitoring | NO | NO |
| In-car cameras | 2×RGB, 2×infrared | 2×RGB |
| Depth sensor | Yes | NO |
While we could see significant improvements, like a near-doubling of the field of view, more cameras for head and hand tracking, and increased battery life, this has come at the expense of the device’s overall weight. The Spectacles’ 24 weighed 226g, while its predecessor weighed just 134g. The new Spectacles are not only heavier, they’re also a bit bulkier, still looking more like ‘glasses’ than ‘goggles.’
The Spectacles' 24-inch is closer to something consumers will accept (both in specs and size), but it's not there yet.
For now, the company is focused on getting the device into the hands of developers so they can start building compelling apps. To that end, the company is offering an interesting pricing model: Spectacles '24 are priced at $100 per month for a one-year commitment starting today. So while the company ultimately charges $1,200 for the device, it hopes the monthly approach will lower the barrier to entry.
Software Renewal and Social Focus
While hardware is slowly becoming consumer-ready, Snap Inc is making bigger strides on the software side. Spectacles '24 is paired with a major refresh at the software layer.
The new 'SnapOS' effectively removes the software stack of previous Spectacles and replaces it with a new one, now offering a common interface and interactions built around hand tracking.
The company is working to equip SnapOS with social capabilities, including allowing Spectacles '24 to recognize other glasses nearby and seamlessly join their sessions for a synchronized AR experience.
The glasses also support a ‘spectator’ mode, which lets someone with a smartphone look into your AR session and see what’s happening. Unlike the spectator views on headsets like the Quest and Vision Pro, the smartphone viewer sees the AR content from its own perspective, rather than just a first-person view through the headset. However, the basic ‘see what I see’ mode of other headsets is also supported.
There are other interesting connections for your smartphone, too, like the ability to use it as a motion controller, virtual gamepad, or mirror apps from your phone to Spectacles so you can have a floating (but non-interactive) view of the app inside the headset.
Of course, these social and smartphone-friendly functions will only work for apps and experiences designed with them in mind, but supporting these capabilities at the OS/SDK level opens up some interesting possibilities.
Lens Studio is a tool that developers use to create AR experiences for both Snapchat and Spectacles, and the company announced its latest version today.
The modern foundation of Lens Studio 5.0 supports even more complex, robust Lenses with TypeScript, JavaScript, and enhanced version control tools for team-based development. Additionally, SnapML makes it easy for developers to use custom ML models directly in Lenses to describe, track, and enrich objects. We’re also excited to bring the power of cloud-hosted multi-modal AI models to Spectacles through a new partnership with OpenAI. Coming soon, this will help developers bring new models into their Spectacles experiences to provide more context for what you see, say, or hear.
Snap Inc says its Spectacles software platform has no “developer tax,” meaning the company won't take a revenue share from developers who make money on the platform. The announcement may seem a bit odd, considering there's currently no way to sell software on Spectacles (and no audience to speak of), but it's clear the company is hoping to build developer expectations for what it hopes will eventually become a consumer product platform.