With Snap OS and the new Spectacles, the creator of the social network Snapchat is once again positioning itself as one of the key players in augmented reality. Its glasses are not yet discreet and autonomous enough for everyday use, but the basics are starting to take shape.
In the more or less near future, will Snap Spectacles be considered the ancestors of the glasses that we will all wear?
On September 17, 2024, at its annual Snap Partner Summit, the creator of Snapchat unveiled the 5th generation of its Spectacles glasses, which, like the 4th generation, truncates video recording and audio playback for augmented reality. This is not a product intended for the general public, but a development kit marketed at a price of $99 per month for creators of AR filters. One day, Snap hopes to be able to offer this product to the masses.
Snap Spectacles are still very bulky glasses, but they are getting better.
Let’s be honest, the look of Snap Spectacles isn’t mainstream yet. Snapchat’s Spectacles are huge, probably heavy, and feel like you’re wearing a virtual reality headset (or 3D movie glasses, if you prefer). The current state of technology doesn’t allow for much further development, but Snap still wants to start developing augmented reality experiences today.
When you wear Snap Spectacles, you see virtual things superimposed on reality, thanks to a holographic system. These can be filters (of course, it’s Snapchat), but also mini-games or educational videos. The glasses also allow you to open a browser or different applications, a bit like the Apple Vision Pro headset. However, there is a major difference with Apple’s headset: Snapchat’s glasses do not use cameras to replicate the real world. You can really see through them.
As a bet on the future, Snap wants to build a platform. The company announced Snap OS, an operating system for augmented reality glasses. My AI, the chatbot based on GPT-4, is also at the heart of the experience, with the ability to generate 3D content with voice.
For Snap, most of the challenges are hardware. With a claimed 46-degree field of view, the company is doing better than before (26.3 degrees), but still well below the human field of vision. Pixel density is also likely lower than what you’d find in a VR headset, which has fewer optical constraints. The company is using two custom Qualcomm chips, a vapor chamber for cooling, and plenty of sensors to improve the experience. Total battery life is 45 minutes, which is clearly not enough today.
On September 25, Meta is expected to unveil its first prototype of AR glasses, after having found success with Ray-Ban’s Meta glasses (which don’t have screens). Other companies could jump into this fray, although real AR glasses, the ones that the public will wear on a daily basis, are probably still a long way off.
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