When Snap debuted its long-awaited smart glasses, Specs, earlier this year, the reveal was not only underwhelming but also a genuine disaster. The glasses - which cost a whopping $2,200 and are vaguely reminiscent of scuba gear - inspired jeers online and calls for the company's CEO, Evan Spiegel, to resign. The company's stock subsequently nosedived. Nothing says "visionary hardware" quite like a plummeting share price and a chorus of people demanding your boss step down.
Since then, Snap has clearly been looking for an opportunity to explain why Specs - a heavy, expensive piece of hardware that most casual consumers will probably be unable to afford - deserves to exist. This is the corporate equivalent of a friend who spent their rent money on a vintage accordion and now needs you to understand it's an investment.
This week, the company had its chance to make that argument. At an event in Los Angeles, Spiegel and other Snap executives unveiled a variety of new features and services connected to Specs. The new updates seem clearly designed to help integrate the glasses into a broader array of digital activities and, in doing so, give Specs a clearer sense of purpose. The purpose, as ever, remains somewhat theoretical.
During Wednesday's event, Spiegel shared details about a number of the new features. After a trippy promotional video that vaguely brought to mind an ayahuasca hallucination, the CEO took the stage and began a series of live demos. Nothing grounds a product pitch in reality like a video that makes you question whether reality is real.
New entertainment options - Specs can now connect with HBO Max and Spotify - provide a baseline of interactive fun that smart glasses have largely lacked until now. So you can watch a show on a $2,200 headset that you could also watch on the phone already in your pocket. Progress!
Yet perhaps the biggest announcement was the launch of Specs Intelligence, which the company calls a new "anticipatory AI" system designed to pair not only with the company's glasses but also with user devices - including iPhones and Macs. Snap claims that this new system "builds an understanding of your goals, priorities, relationships, and routines from the apps and tools you choose to connect, helping you focus on what matters now while making progress towards your longer-term goals." In other words, it's an AI that knows you better than you know yourself, which is either helpful or deeply unsettling depending on how many apps you've connected.
Spiegel called this system an "AI native operating system with intelligence designed around your projects" that helps users "connect the dots across Lenses," Snap's term for its AR camera effects, available on both phones and Specs, "so you can get things done while focusing on what matters to you." In practice, it seems to function more like an AI productivity app that can be used with Snap's glasses but doesn't require them. The glasses, once again, are the accessory to the software's main character.
Snap has also announced a new program called Specs for Enterprise, which allows the device to be integrated into corporate workflows. On Wednesday, the company announced partnerships with a number of different tech companies - including Amazon, Salesforce, Nvidia, and other firms - in an effort to make the device useful to staff at those companies. Because nothing says "cutting-edge innovation" like getting IT to approve it.
What is the real-world utility of this, and who is this service really for? Apparently, the answer is IT technicians. While the actual scenarios in which Specs can be used are a little vague, a demo video played at the event showed an IT technician repairing some hardware with the help of Snap's new glasses. So the killer app for face-computers is... fixing a printer. The future is now.
"We're building out mobile device management, security controls, and ways to deploy and manage stacks across teams with the world's most trusted providers, bringing peace of mind to IT departments," Spiegel said. Peace of mind for IT departments, which is a demographic known for its enthusiasm for $2,200 facial accessories.
Other announced features were slightly more head-scratching. For instance, one of the new experiences is an app, developed through a partnership with the NBA and WNBA, that allows users to practice basketball and improve their shot via the glasses' AR capabilities. But, realistically, who is really going to play basketball while wearing heavy goggles on their head? The answer, presumably, is someone who has never played basketball and never worn heavy goggles, possibly at the same time.
Also announced Wednesday was a new connectivity package for anyone who wants to use Specs on the go, away from Wi-Fi - like outside the home or office. Sold separately, the package includes a charging case with built-in cellular connectivity. That connectivity, which is being made available via a partnership with Verizon, costs $10 a month for Verizon customers and $20 a month for non-Verizon customers. Because the $2,200 was just the cover charge.
Spiegel ultimately framed Specs as a new way to engage with computing in a more human-centric format. "I will say it's an interesting time to be launching a new computer because things in tech are pretty weird right now," Spiegel said. "We're being told that AI will take our jobs, that virtual worlds will replace the real one. Well, no, thank you. We do not accept that future. Making people irrelevant is not progress, and computers should make us more important, not less." A stirring sentiment, delivered while wearing a computer on his face.
Snap has repeatedly justified the product's cringe-inducing cost by characterizing the device as a computer - albeit one you wear on your face. Whether consumers will go for that or not remains to be seen. The company has announced that it is hosting a Specs pop-up in Los Angeles in October before the devices ultimately ship later this fall. So Angelenos will have the chance to try on the scuba gear themselves before committing to the full $2,200 - plus $10 or $20 a month, plus the dignity of explaining to your friends why you're wearing a computer to play Spotify.