Snap Tries to Make the Case Again for Its $2,200 Smart Glasses

For months, Snap has attempted to sell a pair of glasses that resemble scuba gear and carry a price tag of $2,200. The company has now made its first effort to justify their existence, and the entire argument rests on a single inquiry: what problem do these actually solve?

Evan Spiegel, Snap’s chief executive, joined other executives at an event in Los Angeles to show off a series of new features for Specs, the firm’s long-awaited smart glasses. The updates were designed to turn the glasses into something useful rather than merely entertaining, yet the demonstrations repeatedly pointed to unusual parts of the economy: IT technicians repairing hardware, and basketball players working on their shots while wearing heavy goggles.

Opening With a Trippy Video

A promotional video that vaguely brought to mind an ayahuasca hallucination opened the event. Spiegel then took the stage and walked through live demos of the new features.

The headline feature is Specs Intelligence, which Snap calls a new “anticipatory AI” system. It pairs with the glasses themselves, plus iPhones and Macs, to build a picture of your goals, priorities, relationships and routines. The company says the system helps you focus on what matters now while making progress toward longer-term goals.

Spiegel framed it as an “AI native operating system with intelligence designed around your projects.” He said it connects the dots across Lenses — Snap’s term for its AR camera effects — so you can get things done while focusing on what matters to you.

It appears to operate in practice more like an AI productivity tool that can be employed without needing Snap’s glasses but doesn’t hardware. The core conflict in the presentation is that the AI functions independently of the glasses, yet Snap insists on connecting it to the glasses anyway.

The Enterprise Angle

Snap has launched a new program called Specs for Enterprise, designed to allow the device to be woven into corporate workflows. The company has partnered with Amazon, Salesforce, Nvidia and other tech firms, positioning the device to serve staff at those companies.

The demo video showed an IT technician repairing hardware with the help of Snap’s new glasses. Spiegel said the company is building out mobile device management, security controls and ways to deploy and manage stacks across teams with the world’s most trusted providers, bringing peace of mind to IT departments.

Whether IT technicians truly require a $2,200 pair of glasses to carry out their work remains an open issue. Snap has not offered a direct response to it.

Basketball and Connectivity

Some features left people wondering what they were meant for. A separate app, built in collaboration with both the NBA and WNBA, gives users the chance to work on their shot and practice basketball using the glasses’ AR functions. Spiegel questioned whether anyone would actually play basketball while wearing heavy goggles on their head.

The company also detailed a new package that lets users keep Specs connected even when they’re not near Wi-Fi. That package pairs a charging case with its own cellular link, made possible through a deal with Verizon. Verizon customers pay $10 a month for it, while everyone else pays $20 a month.

Justifying the Price

Snap has kept defending the product’s steep price by calling the device a computer, even though it sits right on your face. It is still unclear whether customers will accept that description.

The company has said it will host a Specs pop-up in Los Angeles in October, ahead of the devices shipping later this fall.

Spiegel’s Closing Remarks

Specs was presented by Spiegel as a fresh approach to computing built around a more human-focused design, “I will say it’s an interesting time to be launching a new computer because things in tech are pretty weird right now,” he stated.

The passage opens with a direct quotation from the text, which is set off from the surrounding sentences by being placed between two markers. That quotation, “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.”, stands on its own as a separate statement. The rest of the paragraph continues with further discussion of the subject matter, tying back to the idea presented in the opening quote.

It is a fine saying, though it offers little support for a product whose true worth remains unproven.

The Reception So Far

The debut of Snap’s Specs earlier this year was greeted with derision rather than excitement. The reaction was so strong that there were calls for Spiegel to step down. Online mockery was immediate, and the stock took a hit soon after.

Snap has been on a clear mission to justify Specs since the beginning, and this week gave it the chance to do so. The event came loaded with announcements, yet the fundamental question — who is this for? — remained largely unaddressed.

Who Is This For?

The most obvious path is through the enterprise route. That is what the demo points to for IT workers. The basketball app hints at a wider consumer push, though it is difficult to envision anyone really making use of it.

Snap is banking on AI integration, corporate partnerships and basketball practice to make Specs feel essential. It is a gamble, and the demos have not answered the question of who the glasses are actually for.

The Verdict

Throughout the event, Snap has attempted to make the case for a $2,200 device whose purpose remains unclear. Demos aimed at IT technicians and basketball players alike point to a company searching for a market instead of one offering a clear solution.

The glasses are coming. Whether anyone buys them is another question.

AI · consumer tech · enterprise tech · smart glasses · Snap · Specs