Snap adds AI, entertainment and enterprise features to its $2,200 Specs glasses

Snap used an event in Los Angeles this week to mount a second defense of Specs, its $2,200 smart glasses, unveiling a batch of new features and services intended to give the device a clearer purpose after a disastrous debut earlier this year.

A rocky start

According to TechCrunch, Specs' first reveal earlier this year went badly. Online commentators ridiculed the device's steep price and its bulky, diving-mask-like design, some called for CEO Evan Spiegel to step down, and Snap's share price fell sharply in the aftermath. The company has spent the months since searching for a way to explain why a heavy, expensive wearable that most casual buyers cannot afford should exist at all. Wednesday's event was its opportunity to make that argument.

Entertainment and connectivity

Spiegel took the stage for a series of live demonstrations of new capabilities. Specs can now link up with HBO Max and Spotify, giving the glasses a layer of everyday media functionality that smart glasses have generally lacked until now.

For people who want to use the glasses away from Wi-Fi, Snap is selling a separate connectivity package: a charging case with built-in cellular service delivered through a partnership with Verizon. TechCrunch reports the plan costs $10 per month for Verizon subscribers and $20 per month for everyone else.

Some announcements were stranger than others. A partnership with the NBA and WNBA produced a training app that uses the glasses' AR capabilities to help users improve their basketball shot — an idea TechCrunch greeted with skepticism, given the awkwardness of playing sport while wearing heavy head-mounted hardware.

Specs Intelligence

The centerpiece announcement, per TechCrunch, was Specs Intelligence, which Snap describes as an "anticipatory AI" system. It is designed to work not only with the glasses but also with other user devices, including iPhones and Macs. Snap says the system learns a user's goals, priorities, relationships and routines from the apps and services connected to it, then helps them focus on immediate tasks while making progress toward longer-term aims.

Spiegel characterized it as an AI-native operating system built around a person's projects, connecting "the dots" across Lenses — Snap's term for its AR camera effects on phones and Specs. In practice, TechCrunch observes, it functions more like an AI productivity application that can pair with the glasses but does not require them.

An enterprise pitch

Snap also launched Specs for Enterprise, a program to bring the device into corporate workflows, announcing partnerships with Amazon, Salesforce, Nvidia and other technology firms. The concrete scenarios remain somewhat vague, though a demo video shown at the event depicted an IT technician repairing hardware with the glasses' assistance.

Spiegel said Snap is building mobile device management, security controls and tooling for deploying and managing the devices across teams, working with established providers in an effort to reassure corporate IT departments.

Spiegel's framing

Tying the announcements together, Spiegel presented Specs as a more human-centered form of computing. Describing it as an unusual moment to introduce a new computer, he pushed back on narratives that AI will take people's jobs or that virtual worlds will replace the real one, arguing that making people irrelevant is not progress and that computers should make people more important, not less.

Snap has consistently defended the device's cost by describing it as a computer — one worn on the face. Whether consumers accept that framing remains to be seen. A Specs pop-up is planned for Los Angeles in October, ahead of the devices shipping later this fall.

Why it matters

The event is a test of whether a poorly received hardware launch can be rescued by software and services. By anchoring Specs to an AI assistant that also runs on iPhones and Macs, Snap is hedging its bet: the value of Specs Intelligence does not depend on anyone actually wearing the glasses. The enterprise push, meanwhile, mirrors a pattern across the AR industry, where business buyers often prove more willing than consumers to pay premium prices for headsets. If the strategy works, Snap gains a foothold in both AI software and workplace hardware. If it fails, the company will have an increasingly hard time justifying why it keeps a $2,200 product alive at all.