What I Want to Try on Snap SPECS

Walk around an unfamiliar city with directions open on your phone, and you can spend a surprising amount of the trip looking down. Put those directions into glasses, and you might actually see more of the place you came to visit.

That’s one of the uses Snap outlined in its September 16 announcement of new SPECS experiences. The standalone AR glasses cost $2,195, with shipments expected this fall in the United States, United Kingdom, and France. I’m most interested in using them for travel and exercise.

SPECS put digital content over your view through see-through lenses, with the computing hardware built into the frames. Alongside walking directions, Snap is promising conversation subtitles in 60 languages. You could read a translation while looking at the person speaking. On a trip, that could make it easier to stay in a conversation without passing a phone back and forth.

I’m also curious about Imogen Heap’s Sound Space. Snap says it lets you create and loop music using your hands and voice. I’d want to see how quickly someone new to making music could put together a loop they liked.

The NBA and WNBA practice experiences are where I’d start. They use a real basketball and hoop, adding drills and visual guidance to the court. You’re still shooting a ball and moving around a physical space. The glasses could keep the instructions in view as you practice.

Clear instruction is something I pay close attention to in fitness apps. Having to stop and work out what an exercise is asking you to do breaks the flow of a session. AR gives developers a way to show guidance while someone is performing the movement. How specific that guidance gets will determine how useful this is for practice. The basketball experience will need to help me identify and correct mistakes over several sessions.

ALO Wellness Club is also developing guided movement, recovery, and mindfulness experiences, planned for 2027. Anyone buying SPECS for fitness should keep that later arrival in mind.

Kaia Gerber’s Library Science Lens brings definitions and annotations to physical books. If you prefer paper books, you could look up an unfamiliar word without reaching for your phone.

Jimmy Butler’s Dominoes Lens puts a game on a flat surface so you can play with someone sitting across from you. I like the idea of games that give people something to do together while still being able to see each other.

SPECS Intelligence doesn’t require the glasses. Snap’s AI service is designed for iPhone, Mac, and SPECS. Snap says it can use accounts you choose to connect to pull together travel plans or meeting notes before you ask.

Pulling flight and hotel details out of emails could save a lot of searching. I’m less sold on having an assistant decide when to put something in front of my eyes. That needs restraint, especially while walking somewhere unfamiliar.

Snap says personal content from connected accounts won’t be used to train its models or serve personalized ads. The service also asks for approval before taking actions.

For now, the US iOS preview for adults provides insights from Gmail and Google Calendar. It does not include the anticipatory suggestions or actions. The fuller experience is invitation-only on Mac. The phone preview therefore won’t tell you how well the proposed assistant handles those tasks.

SPECS weigh 132 to 136 grams, depending on frame size. Comfort during movement deserves a proper test. A short demonstration won’t tell me whether they stay comfortable through a workout or a long walk.

The optional cellular charging case provides connectivity away from Wi-Fi and four additional charges. The Connected Case bundle costs $2,395, with US data plans starting at $10 a month for Verizon customers or $20 for others. For travel, the practical question is how much navigation and translation the glasses can handle between charges. Recharging in the case still means taking them off.

The AI service could add another expense. UploadVR reports that Snap hasn’t disclosed its business model after the free preview, leaving the ongoing cost of SPECS Intelligence unclear.

Snap’s enterprise announcement includes remote experts guiding technicians through work with annotations in their view. If that saves a return visit, an employer has a direct saving to put against the price of the glasses.

Public demos begin October 1 at Westfield Century City in Los Angeles. Given a chance to try SPECS, I’m heading for the basketball experience. A useful session would leave me with something I can practice the next time I pick up a ball.