Snap announces new AR glasses for 2026 release

Snap Inc., the company behind the social media app Snapchat, has revealed plans to launch its newest augmented reality (AR) glasses, called Specs, in 2026. The announcement was made at the Augmented World Expo 2025, marking the company's latest attempt to establish itself in the wearable AR market after mixed results with previous iterations of its 'Spectacles' line.

According to an official press release by the company, the upcoming Specs are designed as lightweight, AI-enhanced glasses capable of overlaying digital content onto the physical world. The device will support features such as real-time translation, interactive gaming, and AI-assisted tasks through integrations with OpenAI and Google's Gemini. The company highlighted existing AR applications like Super Travel for language translation and Cookmate for recipe guidance as examples of potential use cases.

Snap's AR ecosystem currently sees 8 billion daily interactions through Snapchat Lenses, with more than 4 million AR filters created by 400,000 developers, says the company, which also introduced updates to SnapOS, including improved 3D object generation and multilingual speech recognition, to further support AR development for the new hardware.

However, key details - such as pricing, battery life, final design, and distribution plans - were not disclosed. The lack of information leaves open questions about how Specs will compete with upcoming AR devices from rivals like Meta and Google, both of which are also investing heavily in wearable AR technology.

Snap's previous attempts to market smart glasses, beginning with its first Spectacles in 2016, have seen limited commercial success, as per a report by TechCrunch on the matter. The company is now positioning Specs as a more advanced product, though whether it can gain broader adoption remains uncertain. The 2026 launch will serve as a test of whether Snap can translate its AR software expertise into a viable hardware business.