Among them Flood of smart glasses Snap is expected to prepare its own new glasses in the coming years. CEO Evan Spiegel told me New augmented reality glasses will be smaller than a chunky developer-centric suit I’ve tried it before. I recently returned to those developers snapshot glasses for testing drives SNAP OS 2.0part of the company’s plan before these glasses arrive.
I realize that Snap is advancing areas where Meta and Google are not fully in, but will. Snap news is clearly trying to preempt the expected reveal of the meta Glasses that support display and Gesture control This week.
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Snap is an interesting player in the AR glasses space because now, it is almost the only one who makes a truly standalone pair that can run various 3D applications with manual tracking controls. The glasses in the developer version are rough and Snap doesn’t even make a prescription insert that matches my eyes, but the app it runs feels like what Apple’s Vision Pro can do, shrinking. Developers have used a considerable number of them in the workshop Real-world outdoor AR experience Other hardware cannot be done yet.
Snap’s video overlays the video gallery into a room with Snap OS 2.0 – apart from actual glasses, the field of view is a small part of it.
Snap’s upgraded OS has a better web browser, and there is a gallery viewing app that view video captures made on glasses and an app to browse Snap’s own vertical social videos and comments.
I tried all of this, but the experience that surprised me was live translation, a generated AI aid called Spotlight, and the surprise port of the fitness game called Synth Riders that I had to play.
Snap’s attractions in its current form are very bulky and have limited vertical field of view, and feels like projecting a phone screen in the air. They also couldn’t accommodate my prescription, so I had to stomp the insert and strabismus. But their hand tracking and 3D spatial features are at best like mini versions Mission 3 and Vision Pro.
There is no capture that shows what I am impressed with, but I will try to explain them.
Snap’s glasses are all about covering 3D experiences your physical space. The lenses are transparent, but the effect is more like a mixed reality based on VR.
Pop-up AI in the real world
From Apple’s latest Airpods to Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses, live translations are everywhere. Snap’s rotation on its glasses translation shows a pop-up text box with translation subtitles, but what makes me interesting is that these boxes float directly under the head of the speaker in 3D space. Since glasses can float 3D objects in space at different depths, and even 2D screens in space, it ends up with more organic after the conversation. Text doesn’t seem to interrupt text like my glasses, but instead embed more text into the world around me.
This feeling continued with an assistive AI demo where I wandered around the room and asked what they did…the pop-up instructions were suddenly covered in the part of what I was looking at. A coffee machine is suddenly marked as a useful step. Or refrigerator. Or a bunch of condiments.
In a sense, I’ve seen such a demo before, but this is obviously done instantly using Generative AI. Will artificial intelligence correctly obtain steps and information? I don’t know – I’ve only used it a few times and it seems to be OK…these steps seem to guess relatively accurately for each part of each device. Or what is a condiment.
I appreciate how the labels in the text are clear and clear, which may make this an interesting model for future assistive glasses.
But I want smaller glasses, those that work with my eyes…and I can wear them all the time. It is not clear that close proximity to these targets is approached.
I wore glasses last year. The design has not changed, but the 2026 model should be smaller.
A fitness wish?
The last gaming app I tried also surprised me. Synth Riders is a popular rhythm-based VR fitness game that can be played on glasses. Playing the game feels rough, and Snap’s glasses have limited vision, which means the experience isn’t as extensive as it is on the Quest 3 or Vision Pro, but it’s a little bit of a sign of how glasses crave fitness games. Meta may also try to get into the space soon on Meta Connect.
I’ve found out that fitness is The biggest reason why I use VR weekly. The next step to putting fitness games on your glasses is obvious, if someone can find a way that doesn’t affect the experience.
While the synth rider on existing SNAP glasses seems clumsy, I’m very curious about what Snap’s consumer version of the glasses have next year that may have better handling, size and battery life. Fitness like glasses might make more sense.
Snap has clearly announced the moves of these operating systems, heading towards the revelation of Meta’s upcoming reveal of its own next-generation smart glasses, but it’s a sign of how many players will enter the glasses space next year. At some point, someone will figure out the full standalone ar glasses, and Snap still gains the technology in the game.
