Snap to launch lightweight, immersive spectacles in 2026 as smartglass race heats up
Snap Inc.
, the parent company of the ephemeral messaging app Snapchat, announced on Tuesday that it will launch immersive
smart glasses
called Specs in 2026. This is in line with other
Big Tech
companies targeting the lucrative smart glasses market, each looking for the next breakthrough in tech hardware.
Snap's Specs are wearable computers integrated into a lightweight pair of glasses featuring see-through lenses that augment the physical world. In 2024, the tech company released the fifth generation of its Spectacles specifically for developers, paving the way for the public launch of Specs in 2026.
'We believe the time is right for a revolution in computing that naturally integrates our digital experiences with the physical world, and we will publicly launch our new Specs next year,' said CEO and cofounder
Evan Spiegel
.
The company said its AR Lenses in the Snapchat camera are used eight billion times per day, and over 400,000 developers have built more than four million Lenses with Snap's AR tools.
The company said it is working with Niantic to integrate its Visual Positioning System (VPS) into its Lens Studio development tools and smart glasses. Additionally, it will integrate WebXR support directly into the browser, allowing developers to build, test, and access augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) experiences.
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Snap also announced major updates to Snap OS, including integration with OpenAI and Gemini on Google Cloud. The company now enables developers to build multimodal AI-powered Lenses and publish them for the Spectacles community.
It also announced the Automated Speech Recognition API, which allows real-time transcription for over 40 languages, including non-native accents.
Big Tech eyes new market
Big Tech companies are racing to one-up each other in the smart glasses market, as they see it as the next space for human-computer interaction and a new way to interact with technology. Here are some of the latest developments in the space:
-
Meta
currently leads in smart glass sales with its Ray-Ban
Meta smart glasses
, with over one million units sold in 2024. These glasses offer features like photo or video capture, music, calls, and voice commands powered by Meta AI.
- Google marked a return to this market after its initial failure to crack it with "Google Glass."
- At Google I/O 2025, the tech giant unveiled Project Aura, a new pair of immersive smart glasses powered by Android XR, also highlighting its lightweight nature. It is an "optical see-through XR" device, overlaying virtual content onto the real world through transparent lenses. Google's AI capabilities will also be integrated into these with Gemini.
- Apple is reportedly planning a 2026 launch for its smart glasses as well, as it faces pressure in the AI-enhanced gadgets segment. Apple is developing dedicated chips for these glasses and aims to start mass production next year.
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