- Snap's new Spectacles offer AR features like piano lessons and video calls.
- Spectacles are lighter than competitors but have a short battery life and some lag.
- I could see these glasses becoming popular with young consumers once Snap works out some kinks.
I got the chance to try out Snap's new developers-only Spectacles. From piano lessons to interactive video calls, the intelligent glasses pack a lot of fun features into a frame that's much lighter than its current competition.
Snap described the latest iteration of its Spectacles as somewhere in between Apple's Vision Pro (which are virtual reality headsets capable of fully immersive experiences) and Meta's Ray-Ban collaboration, which brings AI assistance to a pair of smart glasses like the Spectacles. While the Vision Pro is a heavier corded headset, Meta's smart glasses are more like sunglasses with a camera and an AI assistant.
Spectacles are available to developers for $99 a month with a 12-month commitment once their application to the Spectacles Developer Program is approved.
I wore them on Monday while the Snap team guided me through some features. It took less than an hour since the glasses' battery life is only about 45 minutes. During the demo, I tested different applications, or "Lenses," by Snap and developers to see what the eyewear could do.
As a younger consumer (I'm 25), I liked the simplicity and playfulness of the Lenses I tried, so I could see this product grabbing the attention of some Gen Z buyers.
Some features were clunky but impressive
Spectacles aren't yet at the stage where you can just pick them up in a store, so it's no surprise that the glasses have some clunkiness.
They work by using cameras to sense your hand gestures. You can pinch, pull, and press virtual buttons on the see-through AR glasses using your hands. This feature lags at times, and it takes a couple of tries.
Snap showed me a handful of capabilities during my demo, and they felt playful and fun. I was most impressed by a piano lessons Lens and the potential of its video calling feature.
I was impressed at how well the glasses responded to me pressing the keys on the keyboard while it showed me which notes to play. It was a fun feature that brought in the people around me as I attempted to play along with a song.
When we tested the video calling feature, the person on the other end couldn't see me, but she could see whatever I saw using the camera on the frames. Her face was framed in a window like a normal FaceTime call.
The impressive — and useful — part of the call was that she could interact with my space. She demonstrated that by drawing arrows on the floor to direct me around the room.
I found it a bit awkward at first because it took a while for her drawings to populate my virtual screen, but I could imagine instances it might be useful when I might need to give some hands-on instructions.
They're not as bulky as I thought
They're definitely bigger than a regular pair of glasses, but I was surprised at how relatively normal they looked once I put them on.
When Snap CEO Evan Spiegel announced the glasses in September, I wrote that they looked cartoonishly big during the demo. Once I put them on myself, they looked similar to the oversize sunglasses that are in style these days, and my hair hid the long arms.
They weigh 226 grams — less than Meta's Quest 3 and the Apple Vision Pro, which are over 500 grams. It's clear that Spectacles are a device meant to be more mobile than competitors.
Still, I did have some discomfort behind my ears after wearing Spectacles for less than an hour. The thick arms obstructed my peripheral view a bit, but not much more than a pair of dramatic sunglasses, which I've been known to wear. Snap confirmed that it's working on eventually slimming the glasses down.
It's too early to tell how they'll do with consumers.
As tech companies tease smart eyewear with AI capabilities and mixed reality aspects, there's still some uncertainty around demand.
Google tried and failed to break open the smart glasses market in the past, but that hasn't stopped CEO Mark Zuckerberg from showing off another pair of smart specs, Orion, at Meta Connect in September. The glasses would compete with Spectacles if Meta can make them at a cheaper price than the reported $10,000 that the current version costs.
I haven't tried Orion yet, but Business Insider's chief correspondent Peter Kafka did. He said Orion is much more polished and powerful than Spectacles — but that since he was looking at a demo, not a product that's actually in the wild, it's hard to compare the two.
The bottom line: smart glasses and headsets, in general, are fun and have some unique use cases, but they're still lacking features that would bring me back daily and justify spending hundreds or thousands of dollars.
I was impressed by the Spectacles demo, but I'm still waiting for a feature that makes them feel like a must-have.