Snap launches Specs Intelligence AI assistant, opens preorders for $2,195 Specs AR glasses

Specs Intelligence is available in a preview version on iOS starting Wednesday, according to the company, and users can join a waitlist for the full early-access experience that will come to Mac. Snap says the service does not require a pair of Specs, though it integrates with the glasses. It builds an understanding of goals, priorities, relationships, and routines from apps and tools a user chooses to connect, and it is designed to surface information and actions without waiting for a prompt. On the glasses, it can bring relevant content into the user’s field of view.

The service is meant to be more productivity-focused than Snapchat. Snap says it could highlight decisions to make, questions to ask, and things to remember before a meeting, or gather flight, hotel, and dinner plans for a trip while flagging a work deadline during the visit. It can also organize information into different contexts, such as keeping family-related tasks separate from work. A video shown by Snap indicated it can connect to apps including Gmail and Slack.

Snap spokesperson Cassie Bumgarner said Specs Intelligence uses a proprietary combination of open-source models hosted in the United States alongside local large language models, and that Snap regularly updates the mixture of models. The company is trying to address privacy concerns by saying that Snap personnel cannot view or access the personal content users bring to the service, and that personal content from connected accounts will not be used to train or fine-tune Snap’s AI models or to serve personalized ads. Engadget reported that the iOS preview lets users connect Google accounts to see insights about where they spend time and attention, but it does not include proactive suggestions at this stage.

Specs, Snap’s first consumer-ready AR glasses, are priced at $2,195, though several reports rounded the figure to about $2,200. 9to5Mac reported that preorders opened with a $200 refundable deposit. The glasses are slated to ship later this fall; an exact date has not been announced. Snap plans a demo experience at Westfield Century City in Los Angeles starting October 1, with Verizon stores to offer demos later. The glasses come in two sizes, 47 mm and 52 mm. Engadget’s hands-on found that they weigh 132 grams and can replicate much of the functionality of a mixed-reality headset without a separate puck, controller, or tethered connection. They have a 51-degree field of view, hand-tracking controls that let users point, pinch, and open a palm for menus, and AR content that can anchor and follow a user as they move. Snap also announced a separate cellular carrying case, sold alone or bundled with the glasses for an additional $200, or $2,395 total. The cellular plan costs $10 a month for Verizon customers and $20 a month for non-Verizon customers, with Orange in France and EE in the UK also planning to offer plans.

At a launch event in Los Angeles, CEO Evan Spiegel and other executives demonstrated new features. Specs can now connect with HBO Max and Spotify. The company announced Specs for Enterprise, a program intended to integrate the device into corporate workflows, with partnerships including Amazon, Salesforce, and Nvidia. It also showed an NBA and WNBA app that uses the glasses’ AR capabilities for basketball practice. Spiegel described Specs as a wearable computer and said, “I will say it’s an interesting time to be launching a new computer because things in tech are pretty weird right now.” He added, “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.”

Hands-on impressions from reporters were mixed. Engadget found the operating system more polished than previous versions and said utility-focused apps such as Mapbox-powered walking navigation, a translation app that projected English captions for Italian speech, an AR measuring tool, and a whiteboard app felt useful, though it did not get to try all of them. The Verge said the glasses created a shared digital experience during a dominoes demo, but called hand tracking finicky and said the 51-degree field of view caused digital elements to slip out of sight. The Verge also said the glasses are chunky and heavy compared with normal glasses, though they stayed on the face while walking, and that it could not determine how they would feel over a full four-hour battery cycle. The initial reveal of Specs earlier this year drew jeers online and calls for Spiegel to resign, and the company’s stock subsequently nosedived, TechCrunch reported. Snap has said it will host a Specs pop-up in Los Angeles in October before the devices ship later this fall.

Editor's Summary Snap launched Specs Intelligence, an anticipatory AI assistant for iPhone, Mac, and its Specs AR glasses, while opening preorders for the $2,195 glasses and detailing enterprise, cellular, and entertainment features. The company is pitching the glasses as a standalone wearable computer and the assistant as a privacy-conscious productivity tool, but hands-on reports point to an expensive, bulky device with finicky controls and a limited field of view. The product’s reception will test whether consumers and businesses are ready for mainstream AR glasses.