Evan Spiegel's bet on life after the smartphone

Well, thanks so much. We've been looking forward to this day for such a long time. It's super exciting. Specs are a new type of computer and they're built into a see-through pair of glasses that allow you to put computing into the world around you. And this is really an expression of our vision and our effort to make computing more human. Because in order to make computing feel human, it has to live in the world with us. It can't just be confined to these little screens that take our attention and distract us from the world around us.

Yeah, well Specs are really interesting because they represent a new category of augmented reality glasses. Today in the marketplace you have devices that are either very wearable, right? Lightweight glasses but not super capable. They're almost like phone accessories. I kind of think of them in the same category as like AirPods. And then you have headsets like Vision Pro or HoloLens that are really capable but they're very heavy. They're hard to wear out in the world. And Specs are unique because they're both very wearable and extremely capable. So they're capable of all of this incredible spatial computing and bringing computing into the world around you, but they're also comfortable enough to wear. And that's really the unique opportunity that we see to bring computing into the world through Specs.

I think there are sort of three main categories that people will use Specs for initially. One are just basic utilities, right? Heads-up navigation, translation overlaid on the world around you. I actually really love the measurement tool, super helpful. And then I think the other major categories are the large private display. One of the things that's unique about Specs is you can get a really large immersive display in your pair of glasses. It's equivalent to a 24-inch desktop display or a 115-inch home cinema screen placed about 10 ft away from you. And so, for me, I miss my monitor when I'm on the road. I really love to work on a big screen. And so, to be able to bring a large display with me in a pair of glasses anywhere I'm working is really powerful. And then I think my favorite category, the thing I like doing the most with Specs, is all these incredible immersive and shared experiences, especially with our kids. It's just so fun to play games running around outside. And whether you're putting dinosaurs outside or playing chess or building LEGO, there's so many incredible experiences that you can share together. And that's what makes Specs so different. They're not a single-player screen. They bring computing into the world in a way that you can share.

I think initially it's really going to be session-based. I almost think of them like reading glasses. It's something you want to put on to get things done or play a game or, as you mentioned, use the large private display and then you can put them away when you're not using them. One of the things that is really convenient about Specs, we designed a beautiful way to insert your own prescription, but also easily remove it if you want to share Specs with other people. So, I think they're comfortable enough for folks to wear, but my guess would be at least in this generation that people will wear them more to experience Specs and do things than an all-day pair of glasses.

Yeah, we really wanted to develop an iconic design. And I think it's actually so important that people recognize Specs when they see them. Both in terms of overall comfort out in the world, I think one of the things that creates a lot of discomfort or skepticism, when people see a pair of Ray-Bans now, they're like, 'Are you recording me?' It's like, 'No, it's just a regular pair of Ray-Bans.' But I think that feeling that people are surreptitiously recording you with camera glasses has created some stigma against glasses in general, or smart glasses at least. And so, for Specs, we really wanted an iconic design that people understand is really a computer. So that hopefully they'll be tempted to try it out if they see someone out in the world using Specs. 'Oh my gosh, I'd love to try that.' I think it creates a starting point to have a real conversation.

I think one of the things that's really helped us is just our laser focus on see-through augmented reality glasses for the past 12 years. And we've just taken a step-by-step approach, of course, to evolving the hardware and the hardware capability with our own proprietary optical engine, right? That's the little projector and the piece of glass that allows you to see computing in the world. But also our developer tools and our developer ecosystem. I think our developer ecosystem is now 450,000 developers who are building with Snap's augmented reality tools. And of course, we've also invested in our own operating system. And so, what's so interesting about glasses is because it's such a difficult technical problem to solve is that every single piece needs to work really well together. And so, the benefit of running our rendering engine on low-end mobile phones for a really long time helped us get really good at running immersive experiences in a compute-constrained environment. And our evolution of our waveguide and ability to iterate on that constantly has driven the efficiency that allows us to get the form factor and battery life that people will enjoy with Specs today. So, I think it's really the focus on that vision for making computing more human and bringing computing into the world around us that's helped us have this early mover advantage. And then longer term, I think that will be sustained by our developer community, of course, all the incredible innovation that's coming that the world hasn't even seen yet. But I think this is a great first step in terms of sharing Specs with the broader world.

Well, I think there are a couple things happening all at the same time. The first is that the technical capability has actually landed to be able to deliver this product. And I actually didn't think it was going to come this soon. It's so difficult to design such a performant optical engine. It's so challenging to be able to run all these immersive experiences in that form factor in such a compute-constrained environment. So really the convergence of all of the tech tracks we've been working on to land in this sort of product is something that's really important and allows us to launch Specs. But, I think at the same time, what we're hearing a lot from folks and seeing a lot is that people are really questioning their relationship with screens. People are spending on average, I think, more than 7 hours a day staring down at screens. And they feel like it's distracting them. It's pulling them out of the world. It's taking them out of the moment. And I think if we really want to evolve computing and make it more human, make it something that brings us together, glasses are really the answer to that. Specs are the answer to that. And so, I think we're launching at such an interesting moment when people are, almost 20 years since the iPhone, looking for something new and a new way to use computing.

Yeah. The pricing at $2,195, it is similar pricing to a high-end laptop, for example. So, I do think people are accustomed to seeing pricing like that for computers, especially super performant computers like Specs. So, I think for us, certainly early adopters, of course, the developer community, but I also think as people learn what Specs are capable of and try them, they will find all these different ways that Specs fit into their life. Whether it is getting work done on the road or working on their golf swing, or just playing a game with their teens, or learning something new. I think as folks are able to understand Specs' real capability and what they can do with all the amazing lenses that developers have built, I think that will draw more people to Specs.

Yeah, that's so important to us. We've always wanted to make sure all the computing is on board, and that's part of being able to provide such a low latency experience, and that's what makes the immersion possible. So, a 7-millisecond motion-to-photon latency really makes objects feel real in the world around you, and that's critical to delivering augmented reality.

Well, we're really excited to bring Snapchat onto Specs. So, we're going to share more this fall about the way you can use Snapchat on Specs. But Snapchat, the app, I think it's now more than 950 million monthly active users. So it's one of very few internet services that have reached that sort of scale. And that's another huge advantage. We have this amazing engaged community on Snapchat. And we think that they're going to be excited to try Specs as well.

I think I'd have to say it's probably a tie between being able to bring a large display anywhere. That really makes a difference for me getting things done. Or if I want to review a video we're putting out or whatever. It's so tough to do that on the small screen and pick up the details. So it's really nice to be able to have such a large display even when I'm on the road. But I think the thing that I love the most and what inspires me to work on Specs and continue on this mission and towards our vision is when I can use them together with our kids or even with friends. I think that it's so interesting to have this experience where you realize computing goes from being something that's single player down on a little screen to something you can share together. And that to me is the biggest breakthrough that Specs provide. And I think over time and today people are finding that out in these location-based experiences where you can use Specs and play games together with your friends and run around. Over time as more and more people use Specs and there's more of them out in the world, I think that shared notion of what computing can be is really inspiring.

100% and that's going to be a huge focus for us as we roll out Specs is just helping people try. I don't think people are familiar yet with what computing can be with Specs. And so, just the look on people's faces when they put them on and they can play around and take Specs for a spin, that just really makes my day. So, I can't wait for more people to have that experience.

Absolutely, yeah. We're super excited. And we wanted to make sure today the focus was really on the developer community and showing them Specs. And then, as we get closer to roll out, we're going to be sharing Specs with more people. And you'll be, I'm sure, one of the first to go hands-on.

Thank you. I really appreciate it.