About Evan Spiegel
In June 2026, Spiegel unveiled Specs, Snap's consumer augmented reality glasses, at the Augmented World Expo. He described Specs as "a new type of computer" designed to "put computing into the world around you" and characterized them as distinct from both AI smart glasses and mixed reality headsets. He stated that the glasses are meant to address what he described as people spending excessive time staring at screens and feeling distracted from the real world. The device, priced at $2,195, was made available for pre-order with shipping expected in the fall. Spiegel said the company had spent more than 12 years working toward the product's consumer launch and described 2026 as a "crucible moment" for Snap, citing the company's progress toward reaching nearly one billion monthly active users and the milestone of net income profitability.
On earnings calls and in interviews, Spiegel addressed investor concerns about the pricing and market for Specs, comparing them to high-end computers and laptops. He also discussed the company's cost-cutting measures, which included a reduction in annualized cost structure by more than $500 million, and the ongoing challenges of being compared to larger social media companies. In discussions about the role of AI in software development, Spiegel stated that "the entire way that software is written now has changed profoundly" and expressed a belief that humans would not be writing code within the next year.
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Evan Spiegel's recent appearances.
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✨ AI-enhanced transcript with speaker attribution
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Julia Boorstin0:10
Things at Snap's Partner Summit taking augmented reality ambitions to the next level, unveiling a new pair of consumer AR glasses and laying out its vision for the future. But the shares are down about 5% after this big reveal. Let's get out to Julia Boorstin. She is in Long Beach, California, with the CEO of Snap, Evan Spiegel.
Julia Kelly, thanks. So much. And Evan, thanks for joining us here today. You're wearing your new Specs, which you just unveiled. They cost $2,195. The stock's down more than 5%. How do you address investor concerns about the potential market for these?
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Evan Spiegel0:33
Well Julia, thanks so much for joining us here at AWP. It's been such an exciting day for the company and something we've been working towards for more than 12 years now, to really bring computing into the world and make it more human. I think it's something that people are really looking for in this moment where they feel like screens are distracting them. People are spending, on average, more than seven hours a day staring down at screens instead of connecting with their friends and staying present in the world. We think Specs offer a totally new opportunity to bring computing into the world around you and help computing feel more human and more personal.
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Julia Boorstin1:03
During your keynote, you took a jab at Mark Zuckerberg and you said the folks up north aren't going to be able to copy these. But Meta right now is selling much lower priced devices. You have the $250 glasses with AI via audio. They have an $800 version of these. Yours is so much more expensive. Aren't you concerned about competing?
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Evan Spiegel1:23
Well, I think you raise a really interesting point today. If you look at the market, it's bifurcated. You either have smart glasses, which are lightweight and wearable but aren't really capable of much. They're almost more like AirPods or something, a phone accessory. And then you have headsets which are very capable and immersive, but they're also clunky and hard to wear. They shut you out of the world with virtual reality. Specs occupy a totally new category of computing. They're both highly wearable, but also incredibly capable for immersive computing. So whether you want to bring a private display on the road with you, whether you want to play games together with your friends, or just use real world utilities like navigation or real time translation, Specs are incredibly capable of bringing computing into the world around you.
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Julia Boorstin2:07
But these cost $2,200. Who is going to be buying these for things other than playing games?
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Evan Spiegel2:13
Well, I think the most important way to think about Specs is as a computer. They're comparably priced to other high end computers or high end laptops. Whether it's early adopters or the developer community, there are more than 450,000 developers using Snap's AR tools. So there's already a group of people who are so passionate about this vision of bringing computing into the world with augmented reality.
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Julia Boorstin2:34
You're launching this new device, unveiling this new device just the day after Britain's Prime Minister announced that they're going to be enacting a social media ban for teens under age 16 going into effect. Does introducing a new face complicate these youth safety issues even further?
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Evan Spiegel2:49
I think what's so important about Specs is that it offers a way to bring people off of screens and into the world in a way that they can share computing together. This is something that's been so important to our vision and the mission for the company over the last 15 years. Whether it's things like ephemeral messaging that make conversations feel like talking face to face, or Stories that put content in chronological order the same way we've told stories forever, or even just opening into the camera with Snapchat, which opens into the world around you. Specs are an extension of that vision because they bring computing off of screens into the world around you, where it can be shared with friends and family.
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Julia Boorstin3:21
But there are social media concerns about youth safety, whether it's on that device or whether it's on a phone. You're not only facing social media bans for teens in other countries, including Australia and another ban coming in France this fall, but also lawsuits here in the U.S. How much more complicated does it make your work fighting these lawsuits when you're introducing yet another device where teens might interact with people they shouldn't or see inappropriate content?
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Evan Spiegel3:48
We take safety incredibly seriously. In fact, with Snapchat, you have to add each other as friends before you can communicate. We moderate content so that we can find any content that violates our guidelines and remove it promptly from the service. This is an area we're going to continue to invest in because it's incredibly important to us. We encourage parents to use Family Center, where they can link their account to their teen's account so they can supervise their use of Snapchat.
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Julia Boorstin4:09
Just a final quick question. Your stock was down 30% year to date before today's announcement.
