Between Meta and its Ray-Ban glasses, Xreal and its partnership with Google, and a rumored Samsung entrant that could arrive any day now, the smart glasses field is hot right now. No matter how crowded the field is getting, though, there’s still one thing no one has yet to offer: augmented reality glasses with screens and all in a lightweight form factor that’s similar to regular glasses. According to Snap, however, that AR unicorn is on its way.
At Augmented World Exhibition (AWE) 2025, an annual expo for all things AR/XR, Snap said its next-gen spectacles, which are both “lightweight” and “immersive,” will be launching next year. The details are still scant on pretty much everything, but based on its description of next year’s Specs, the company behind Snapchat seems to think it’s cracked the code.
“We believe the time is right for a revolution in computing that naturally integrates our digital experiences with the physical world, and we can’t wait to publicly launch our new Specs next year,” said Snap CEO Evan Spiegel in a statement. “We couldn’t be more excited about the extraordinary progress in artificial intelligence and augmented reality that is enabling new, human-centered computing experiences. We believe Specs are the most advanced personal computer in the world, and we can’t wait for you to see for yourself.”
There are some other equally vague hints at what we can expect out of next year’s Specs, including mentions of AI, to no one’s surprise, and applications with gaming, streaming, web browsing, and *sigh* work. That tells us a little bit about what we can expect, but also kind of nothing. One thing is for sure, though, and that’s that Snap and Spiegel have been working towards making the definitive, groundbreaking pair of AR glasses for quite a while now. In 2019, Spiegel said smart glasses are still 10 years from mass adoption, and if my math is correct, it’s 2025 and not 2029, so these upcoming Specs may just be a precursor still. Snap definitely has some work cut out for itself before it can call its Specs “lightweight.” Current versions look more like a Halloween costume than something you’d want to wear to the park. Whatever Snap ends up releasing, it’s going to have some competitors.
Google just recently unveiled a partnership with AR glasses company Xreal that combines the company’s Android XR operating system with Xreal’s hardware. That’s still in development at the moment, but it’s clear that Google is actively taking strides towards throwing its hat into the AR glasses world in earnest. Then there’s Meta. While the Ray-Ban smart glasses are just a glimmer of what smart glasses can be, Meta reportedly has plans to inch towards a pair of Ray-Bans that feels more futuristic, which would include the use of an actual display inside the lens for navigation, notifications, and more. That’s not even counting Meta’s Project Orion glasses, which combine elements of VR headsets like real compute power with the smaller form factor of glasses. Neither of those is a consumer product, but a lot can happen in a few years.
For now, Snap will take a similar route to what we’ve seen already on the smart glasses front. It announced at AWE that Snap OS, the operating system that powers its Specs, will integrate both Google’s Gemini AI and OpenAI’s ChatGPT to offer “multimodal AI-powered” experiences. That should look similar to what we’ve seen with Meta’s AI integration that lets you use on-device cameras to take in your surroundings and offer feedback. For example, looking at a pair of shoes and saying, “WHAT ARE THOSE?” and having your glasses (hopefully) tell you what you’re looking at. I hope for everyone’s sake that whatever the integration is, it works better than Meta AI—an AI experience that I’ve found to be finicky at best.
Either way, by Spiegel’s own words, Snap is still a player in the AR glasses game, and next year may be the year we find out how much of a competitor it really is. As someone who’s pretty excited about the AR glasses space, I’m hoping that it actually delivers on its vision before it gets swallowed by competition.
