Snapchat Launches Revolutionary New Augmented Reality Glasses

This Tuesday, September 17, Snapchat unveiled its latest generation of augmented reality glasses, the Spectacles 5. These glasses bring a number of interesting new features compared to the previous generation, and especially compared to the competition. Forget the Ray-Ban Meta, which can only take photos or videos, or the mixed reality headsets that force the user to stay in a virtual world: the Spectacles aim to offer a premium augmented reality experience, as it was dreamed of a decade ago.

The future within reach… but not for everyone

The Spectacles 5 are powered by a pair of Qualcomm processors (one in each arm) and are primarily intended to provide an augmented reality experience that is far superior to what is already available on the market. As such, these new glasses can allow their users to perform a whole host of actions usually reserved for using a smartphone (doing an internet search, getting directions, trying on clothes virtually before buying them), and all this directly from their field of vision. “We need more natural, more intuitive and more human devices to help us break away from the screens that separate us,” says a Snapchat spokesperson. Not sure that sticking a screen directly on the user's nose is a good way to distance them from a digital world…

Despite all these qualities, Snapchat Spectacles still seem to have one major flaw: the design. Just take a quick look at their appearance to understand that we are not yet facing a completely finished product. The whole thing lacks finesse and elegance, to say the least. But there is no doubt that this is a work in progress, and future technologies should make it possible to shrink the device in the years to come, until it looks like classic sunglasses.

Snapchat Spectacles remain for the moment products intended primarily for developers. Moreover, their price is enough to dissuade individuals: to take advantage of them, Snapchat has set up a monthly subscription system that is dissuasive for ordinary mortals. You will have to pay $100 per month to use them (with a one-year commitment – so you need to budget at least $1,200). However, since the technology seems to be aiming for new horizons, it does not seem impossible to imagine the marketing of a next generation to the general public.