In a wide-ranging interview, Snap Inc’s co-founder and CEO Evan Spiegel talked about one of the top features that will separate its forthcoming smartglasses from the competition, while also non-so-subtly calling them out on their approach to hardware.
Speaking to David Senra, host of the Founders podcast, Spiegel gave some insight into the company’s mystery Specs smartglasses which are due to launch later this year, ready to take on the current might of the Ray-Ban Meta and up-and-coming challengers like Even Realities.
In-house development
Little is currently known about Snap Inc’s latest pair of smartglasses, so hints from Spiegel are interesting. He explained how keeping some hardware development in-house will give it an advantage, while questioning one of the highest profile partnerships in smartglasses at the moment.
Control of the hardware is necessary to deliver an extraordinary customer experience in this space, and the intersection between the hardware and the software to deliver that customer experience is essential.
Spiegel said the company is watching other brands “cobble together components” from a variety of sources, and doesn’t think this is the optimal strategy for a small, lightweight product. On this same subject, he pointed out that EssilorLuxottica’s partnership with Meta is far more beneficial to the Facebook owner, as:
The Meta brand is not something that people want to put anywhere near their face.
Ouch.
Waveguide screen tech
Spiegel continues to say it’s the screen in its future smartglasses which will be one of the standout features.
If we want to deliver this cutting-edge computing experience, we need a very high degree of control in the areas where we can really differentiate. The display components are an area where we really differentiate. We have an incredibly performant waveguide display, and we’ve developed our own projector that’s incredibly small.
He talks about the waveguide screen’s high resolution, sharpness, and wide field-of-view, and says no other company comes close to Snap Inc’s ability to deliver the right product experience in this feature.
By doing it ourselves, we’ve created a competitive advantage that will show up in the product that consumers will experience.
Working with Qualcomm
Spiegel’s interview came at around the same time as Snap Inc. announced a multi-year partnership with Qualcomm, and that its Specs smartglasses will use the Snapdragon XR platform.
Qualcomm’s president and CEO Cristiano Amon said:
The next era of computing will be defined by devices that understand what you see, hear and say as well as context, and respond instantly to the world around you. Our work on future generations of Specs will enable power-efficient interactive AR devices that deliver agentic experiences that feel natural, intuitive and integrate seamlessly into daily life.
Although it’s not stated which Snapdragon XR platform will be used, it’s possible it’ll be the Snapdragon AR1 Gen 1, found in the RayNeo X3 Pro AR glasses, or the Snapdragon AR2 Gen 1.
Snap Inc may be happy to control the display and the software too, based on its extensive testing with the current 5th generation Spectacles, but is clearly comfortable handing over the Specs’ processor and platform to another company.
The exact date for the Specs release has not been announced, only that we should expect them in 2026. It joins Google with its AI glasses, Samsung’s smartglasses plans, and further products from Meta likely to launch this year.
