Snap Spent a Week Trying to Justify Its $2,200 Smart Glasses. Here Is What It Announced.
New AI features, enterprise deals and a $10-a-month data plan are Snap's answer to the backlash over Specs. Whether they add up to a convincing argument is another question.
Key points
- Snap's Specs smart glasses launched at $2,200 and drew widespread ridicule and calls for CEO Evan Spiegel to resign.
- At a Los Angeles event this week, Snap unveiled Specs Intelligence, an AI productivity system that works with iPhones and Macs, not just the glasses.
- Enterprise partnerships with Amazon, Salesforce, Nvidia and other firms position Specs for workplace use, with IT technicians as the clearest target users.
- Cellular connectivity, sold separately, costs $10 a month for Verizon customers and $20 a month for everyone else.
- Snap plans a Los Angeles pop-up in October before Specs ship later this fall.
Snap's $2,200 smart glasses had a rough debut. The device, which looks more like scuba gear than eyewear, was mocked online when it launched earlier this year. Calls for CEO Evan Spiegel to resign followed. The company's stock fell.
So this week, Snap tried again.
At an event in Los Angeles on Wednesday, Spiegel took the stage for a series of live demos meant to show that Specs has a real reason to exist. As first reported by TechCrunch, the announcements covered entertainment, workplace tools, AI software and a new data plan.
What exactly did Snap announce?
The headline addition is Specs Intelligence, which Snap calls an "anticipatory AI" system. Think of it as a personal assistant that learns your routines and priorities by connecting to apps you already use on your iPhone or Mac, then nudges you toward what matters next. It doesn't require the glasses at all. That makes it feel more like an AI productivity app that happens to pair with Specs than a feature only the glasses can unlock. We took a closer look at how Specs Intelligence surfaces reminders before you ask for them in our 17 September story.
Entertainment got a boost too. Specs can now connect to HBO Max and Spotify.
On the business side, Snap announced Specs for Enterprise, a programme that lets companies put the glasses into workplace workflows. Partners include Amazon, Salesforce, Nvidia and other firms. The clearest demo use case: an IT technician using the glasses to walk through a hardware repair, with step-by-step guidance overlaid on what they see. Spiegel said Snap is building device management and security controls for IT departments.
| Feature | Detail |
|---|---|
| Specs price | $2,200 |
| Specs Intelligence | AI productivity system, works on iPhone and Mac too |
| Entertainment | HBO Max and Spotify integration |
| Enterprise partners | Amazon, Salesforce, Nvidia and others |
| Cellular add-on (Verizon) | $10/month |
| Cellular add-on (all others) | $20/month |
| Specs pop-up | Los Angeles, October |
A separate cellular connectivity package, built through a Verizon partnership, lets users take the glasses anywhere without Wi-Fi. The package includes a charging case with built-in mobile connectivity.
Does any of this make the price easier to swallow?
Honestly, not yet. The enterprise pitch is the most coherent argument Snap's made: hands-free AR glasses, where AR means augmented reality, overlaying digital information onto the physical world, do make genuine sense for a technician diagnosing equipment. Consumer cases are thinner. A basketball shooting app that requires wearing heavy goggles on a court is a real product Snap announced with a straight face.
Spiegel framed the glasses as a new kind of computer, one that keeps people in the physical world rather than pulling them away. "Making people irrelevant is not progress," he said. That's a coherent philosophy. It doesn't, by itself, explain why the device costs as much as a decent laptop plus a budget smartphone.
The survivorship bias here is worth flagging. Every smart glasses launch has produced a reel of promising demos. Most never found a mass audience. Snap's enterprise play is a smarter bet than consumer novelty, but partners announcing support isn't the same as workers using the device day to day. It's also worth watching how Snap competes in a market where, as we reported on 16 September, Meta is developing its own next-generation smart glasses.
The honest takeaway: if you work somewhere that hands-free step-by-step guidance would genuinely help, think maintenance, repair or logistics, keep an eye on Specs for Enterprise when it ships this fall. Everyone else can wait to see whether the price drops before committing anything.
