I think a lot of companies have made the mistake of trying to make smart glasses look like normal glasses, which really just ends up being kind of creepy.
So, the Snap Specs are coming later this fall, and I've had some time testing them that you can read about on tomms.com. But, as a smart glasses guy here, I'm not blind to all of the big questions that people have, specifically around the Snapspecs, namely, what gives with that big chunky design on your face. Will people actually want to wear that on a regular basis? What about all of the AI features running underneath it as well? Could that AR overlay actually take you out of the real world? And then what about privacy? Because if we're being real, Snap really doesn't want a meta perfect glasses situation on their hands. So, I got to talk to Snap CEO Evan Spiegel and ask him all of these questions.
Evan, thanks for joining me.
Thanks so much. I've really been looking forward to this.
Yeah, I've been looking forward to it, too. Um, because I kind of want to kick off from essentially taking a look back. So 10 years ago, I was running at full pelt across Las Vegas to one of those vending machines to pick up spectacles. Uh, I believe it was outside the T-Mobile Arena.
Uh, it was at CES 2017 and um, just the amount of like a rush of people so like getting to the doors to try and get to these glasses. But of course, we're here now with specs and things have taken a dramatic step forward over the past decade. And I guess what I want to ask is when did this vision for instinctual computing as you call it kind of come to life? Are there any sort of like interesting behind the scenes tidbits or like decisions that were made that got you to this moment of launching Specs?
Yeah. Well, first of all, it's been just an incredible journey over the past 12 years or so working on specs. And I think, you know, a lot of the roots are in some of the early ideas that animated Snapchat itself, right? You know, back when we started working on Snapchat, we were really frustrated with social media. We thought, you know, it's all permanent and public, you know, and there are all these likes and comments, so it felt like a popularity contest. It didn't really feel like a human way of interacting with your friends. And so with Snapchat, starting by opening to the camera, right? So opening into what's just right in front of you and then creating this way that people could feel almost like they were talking face to face, right? Even if they were, you know, miles apart. That really began our obsession with this, you know, goal of really trying to make computing feel more human. And, you know, immediately we ran into limits with the smartphone, right? It's a really tiny screen. So, when you're trying to interact with things, you got to use your thumbs and uh, you know, you're keep kind of always looking down at your smartphone. And none of these things seem to really bring out the best in people and the way that people interact with the world. And so, when we thought about, you know, how humans interact with the world, how we like to interact with the world, it's really quite simple because we start by looking around at things, then we think about them, and then we take action. And so we do this little loop of looking at the world, thinking about it, and then taking action over and over again. And we wanted to build a computer that could do that along with you. And so for us that meant glasses were the right form factor because they can see what you see and they can understand the world without recording it. Then we thought a lot about how to build an operating system that could think alongside you, right? And really provide real assistance. And then of course the interface is actually the world around you. And all of that results in what we call instinctual computing because instead of having to learn some new interface like a keyboard and a mouse, you know, to point and click or the touchscreen interface, with specs, you just interact with specs the same way you interact with the world. You can reach out and grab stuff. You can talk and ask for what you want. And so I think for the first time, people have this experience where they don't have to learn anything new to get started on specs. And that's really powerful.
Yeah. And of course, this comes after a few different generations of like developer hardware spectacles to kind of really build out this suite of lenses that people will be able to use once they launch in the fall. Um, what to you was that Eureka moment that made you kind of like see and realize that it's time for Specs to go prime time to the consumers?
Well, I think the reason why this generation of specs is ready for prime time is we finally fit all of this extraordinary capability into a lightweight pair of see-through glasses. So, they're about 130 grams, so they're very wearable. They come in two different sizes. And so, you know, when I think back on, you know, prior generations of specs, the last developer version weighed like 200 and something grams. Just way too heavy to really be wearable for these sorts of experiences. That's one of the biggest leaps. But at the same time, our operating system, we call it Specs OS, has really matured a lot. And so that means developers are able to build really immersive and connected experiences. So if two people are wearing specs, you can both see the same thing, interact with it at the same time. That's built in at the operating system layer. So developers can build their experience and immediately enable it as something that can be shared. And you know, those are always aha moments for me because I think, you know, our entire experience of computing up until today has been single player, whether that's a desktop, you know, in the computer lab when I was back at school or, you know, smartphones today. Specs are the first time that you can have a shared computing experience together with your friends and your family all in the same room doing the same thing. And that's really, you know, an aha moment.
Yeah. And to kind of touch a little bit on what you were talking about there when it comes to the design of the glasses. So, um, of course when they were announced at AWE, uh, the responses like there was like equal amounts of people so like excited about sort of like the very sort of like fashionable sense of it, but then other people calling them chunky in a way. Um, and of course I know that that comes with the challenge of trying to pack all of the computation like we're talking two Snapdragon processors, all of the sensors and then the battery tech into there as well as the waveguide displays. Um, so I kind of want to know a bit more about that design story. Like how did, um, Snap and the specs team arrive at this look for them to kind of like encase everything inside?
What was really really important for us that specs are totally standalone. So they don't, you know, require a wired tether or a wireless tether. All the compute that you need is on board with specs. And we thought that was important because people don't want to lug around another puck or something like that just to use specs. And so in terms of real wearability and portability, that was something that was really important to us. Um, and then we really wanted to have a distinctive style. You know, I think a lot of companies have made the mistake of trying to make smart glasses look like normal glasses, which really just ends up being kind of creepy, right? Because people feel like, 'Oh, are you spying on me? Why are you wearing those spy glasses that are disguised as regular glasses?' So with specs, you can really see them coming. You know, they've got iridescent lenses, a very distinct style. And hopefully that invites some real conversation because the thing I think that's so surprising about specs is someone might think, 'Oh, are you recording me?' And it's like, 'No, I'm watching a video on YouTube.' You're like, 'What? You're watching a video on YouTube with a pair of see-through glasses?' So, I think that that moment is going to be really exciting for people as they start learning about what specs can do, and it'll start shifting, I think, people's impression of this new type of computer. Because when your friend pulls out, you know, their cell phone, you're not like why are you taking a video, right? You assume they're sending a text message or something like that. And so I think a lot of what will happen in the coming months with specs is that people are going to understand really what they do. Uh, and therefore, you know, really appreciate the form factor that we were able to fit all of that capability into such a lightweight pair of glasses.
