Evan Spiegel says Snap can’t fulfill its mission without its new AR glasses

Snap Inc. CEO Evan Spiegel announced the company's new AR-enabled glasses, called Specs, at the AWE augmented reality conference. The company plans to ship Specs this fall with a price tag of $2,195 and is currently accepting preorders. This launch marks Snap's continued, long-term investment in smart glasses as a computing and communications platform, a strategy that began nearly a decade ago with its first Spectacles product. Spiegel highlighted his early fascination with augmented reality, dating back to his Stanford student days, where he envisioned computing through see-through lenses as an alternative to traditional screens. Despite Snap's stock experiencing a significant decline of over 90% from its peak and multiple rounds of layoffs in August 2022, February 2024, and April of this year, the company has maintained its focus on AR glasses. Spiegel emphasized that Specs and previous iterations have never been considered a mere side project but are integral to Snap's mission, differentiating them from other divested activities like original short shows, social mapping, and music creation.