Evan Spiegel doesn't want you to call Snap Specs AI glasses

Snap's newly announced AR Specs might seem similar to other smartglasses, but Snap CEO Evan Spiegel says that's the wrong way to think about the product. Specs, he says, is "a new type of computer, a see-through computer."

Shortly after unveiling Specs at AWE, Spiegel sat down with Engadget to tell us more about the device we got a glimpse of onstage. The CEO repeatedly referred to Specs as a "computer" and that really is core to understanding how Snap is positioning the product (and justifying the price). Specs, Spiegel said, "is able to overlay computing on the world around you and bring computing into the world, which is so important if you want to make computing feel more human."

But Snap will have to do more than just persuade people to buy a computer for their face. When Specs go on sale later this year, the company will face a very different environment than when it first started experimenting with camera-enabled glasses in 2016. For one, it has a lot more competition now. But today, there's also increasing suspicion of smartglasses, given that there have been some very public cases of people misusing the tech.

There's the Meta of it all, too. The company was recently caught with an unreleased facial recognition feature on its Ray-Ban glasses (that it removed soon after outside researchers discovered it). 

Spiegel, not surprisingly, isn't a fan of facial recognition.

"There are certain use cases, like facial recognition, that we don't allow in Lenses, and one of the benefits of having our own developer ecosystem and our own developer tools is that we're able to moderate the Lenses that are submitted and available on Snap to make sure that they comply with our guidelines," he told Engadget.

He also said he hopes people will view Specs differently than what's currently out there. "I think AI glasses are typically being used to record content, that's sort of the purpose of the glasses as they're marketed," he said. "That's not the purpose of Specs. In fact, I think that might be an almost tangential use case." 

Spiegel said he thinks people will feel more comfortable around Specs once they understand wearers are more likely to be "using a computer, not surreptitiously recording videos."

Specs will also launch at a time when more governments and regulators are scrutinizing social media companies' track records on child safety. Earlier this week, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the UK would ban children under 16 from social media, including Snap. Spiegel said that while he anticipates Specs "will mostly be used by adults," the company has built some parental control features for people who want to share the glasses with their teens. "You can basically swipe a little toggle [in the Specs app] and limit the world of Lenses that they can use when they're using Specs," he explained. "So they can have all the fun and play, and still provide comfort to parents that they're overseeing what their teens are doing."

At $2,195, Specs will be more expensive than any other smartglasses currently on the market. It's also more expensive than even most headsets, save for the Apple Vision Pro, which Spiegel drew a clear comparison to during his keynote. I asked if Snap's goal is for the price of Specs to come down eventually and he said it is a long term goal for the company.

"That's something we're really focused on over time, because we want Specs to be as accessible as possible," he said. "As far as computers go, it's an incredibly powerful new computer, and we try to price in a way that makes it something that early adopters and developers and folks who are really passionate about this technology can afford."

Besides price, the biggest question ahead of the Specs reveal was just how much Snap would be able to change their design. Spiegel was wearing the new Specs throughout our conversation, and after seeing them up close I'm able to confirm they are indeed much more refined than the developer version from 2024. The arms are still quite thick, though, and stuck out a bit past Spiegel's head. But from the front, they are noticeably narrower and rounder than the boxy, more angular frames we've seen in the past from Snap.

While he was speaking, I was able to easily see his eyes through the lenses, though I could detect some rainbow-like reflections from the embedded waveguides when he turned his head. I also saw the lenses when the dimming feature was enabled and they looked fully blacked out, like dark sunglasses.

Unfortunately, Snap isn't offering demos of the glasses just yet, so my impressions are limited to what I was able to observe during my quick chat with Spiegel. But I'm looking forward to seeing how Snap's "computer" will look and fit on different faces.