Product2 publishers3 min readPublished
Snap previews its Specs assistant on iPhone before the $2,195 glasses arrive
Specs Intelligence went into US preview today on iPhone and Mac for users 18 and over, while the $2,195 glasses it is named after reach three countries later this fall and lean on calls, Spotify and streaming video.
The Product Desk · Product desk
What happened
- Snap says its Specs augmented-reality glasses will arrive in the US, UK and France later this fall, starting at $2,195.
- The published feature list runs to 13 items, including Bluetooth calls, Spotify, photo and video capture, streaming from YouTube and HBO Max on the display, Shopify 3D shopping and real-time translation.
- Snap says the glasses do not use facial recognition or continuously record audio, video or images, and an external LED lights up while they are recording.
Compiled by The Product DeskSomething wrong?How this is made
Why it matters
- decision The purchase splits into two decisions, because the assistant runs on an iPhone and a Mac today: a buyer can find out whether the software habit sticks months before committing to the hardware.
- cost A US buyer outside Verizon who takes the connected bundle and the $20 plan is into $2,635 in the first year, and the plan renews after that.
- constraint The preview is US-only and restricted to adults, so teams in the UK and France cannot evaluate the software layer at all until the glasses reach them.
- exposure Anyone connecting a calendar, mail and location to an anticipatory service is relying on Snap's own statement that its personnel cannot view that content.
Someone curious about Snap's Specs can test the assistant today with an iPhone, a US account and an age over 18, and no glasses at all. Specs Intelligence went into preview through the Specs iOS app, and it runs on iPhone and Mac as well as on the glasses [14][15]. Connect a calendar and a couple of accounts, and over two weeks you find out whether the unprompted suggestions are things you would have gone looking for anyway [13]. That test is free. The glasses are $2,195 and reach the US, UK and France later this fall [2].
Snap says the service is "designed so Snap personnel cannot view or access the personal content you use with the service". It also says that "Personal content from connected accounts will not be used to train or fine-tune Snap's AI models, or to serve personalized ads" [16][17]. Both lines come from the company's press statement, which also describes a mix of on-device processing and secure cloud infrastructure [18].
WIRED's account lists 13 things the glasses do. Four of them - Bluetooth calls, Spotify, photo and video capture, and streaming YouTube or HBO Max on the built-in display - are jobs that earbuds, a camera and a phone screen already handle [5][6]. Snap says the virtual display "feels like a 115-inch cinema screen placed about 10 feet away" [7]. Specs will also work as a wireless display for a PC or Mac, with support for Bluetooth keyboards [8].
The items that need the hardware to be glasses arrived with partners attached: NBA and WNBA drills overlaid on a real hoop, Starmap constellations, and Shopify products shown at full scale in the room. Translation covers 60 languages, delivered through the speakers and as text on the display [30][31][9]. WIRED cautioned that real-time translators of this kind can be hit or miss [10]. Evan Spiegel and the company said repeatedly that the goal is to make "computing more human" [11].
The enterprise pitch names Salesforce, Amazon and Nvidia, with features that put codes or specs in the wearer's field of view, find parts on a product, or check backstock [26]. Google ran an enterprise version of Glass and shut it down in 2023 [27].
The bundle with the new cellular charging case costs $2,395 in the US. That is $200 over the base price, and it buys four extra charges plus cellular connectivity [21][23]. Verizon's data plans start at $10 a month for its own customers and $20 for everyone else. So a non-customer pays $120 more a year, and $2,635 across the first year with the bundle [22][24][25]. Orange in France and EE in the UK are the other carrier partners [21]. Neither WIRED nor Road to VR reports what a competing pair costs [33].
Two questions sort the published list for a particular buyer. The first is whether the user's hands have to stay on the real object. The second is whether the information has to sit on that object to be worth anything. Basketball drills and backstock lookup pass both. Calls, Spotify and HBO Max fail both, on a device whose connected bundle costs $2,395.
Fit is the part a buyer has to try on, and Snap is running free demos from October 1 at its First Look location in Westfield Century City in Los Angeles [28]. Spiegel was widely mocked online for how the Specs sat on his ears at the June reveal. He later posted a picture of his unburdened ear on X, writing, "that's just what my ear looks like." [12]
What to watch
- Whether the Specs Intelligence preview opens beyond the US, and to under-18s, before the glasses land in the UK and France.
- Whether the Salesforce, Amazon and Nvidia enterprise features become shipping products, and on what date.
- What buyers at the October 1 demos in Westfield Century City say about weight and fit.