Powering the new Spectacles is the new Snap OS and a pair of Qualcomm Snapdragon processors, which Snap says will split the processing tasks. During the demo, Spiegel also used the glasses to take a video of the crowd, so it appears that these spectacles will maintain some of their original utility.

Snap announced an upgraded version of its Spectacles augmented-reality glasses on Tuesday, doubling down on its bet that wearable devices to enhance the view of the real world will be one of the next frontiers in tech.

This comes days ahead of rival Meta set to showcase its AR glasses at the Meta Connect conference and Apple Inc having set the stage for its AR glasses that have reportedly been under development.

Snap Inc. Chief Executive Officer Evan Spiegel unveiled a new version of the company’s Spectacles smart glasses, revitalizing an effort to build an advanced augmented reality product that may one day replace or rival the smartphone.

Snap’s latest augmented reality glasses have a completely new — but still very oversized — design, larger field of view and all-new software that supports full hand tracking abilities.

These subscription-based developer glasses aim to go where bigger headsets like the Quest 3 and Vision Pro can't yet.

Tech giants including Meta, Snap, Google and others are racing to build smart glasses. It could change our lives for the better or worse.