Philip Houska The company behind the popular social media network Snapchat has decided to take two major steps that should push it forward in its growth. Under the new name Snap Inc., thanks to which the company wants to present other products, not only the Snapchat application, it has just presented the first hardware novelty. These are sunglasses with the Spectacles camera system, which are intended to serve not only as a supplement to the traditional application, but also to show the future direction of this specific industry.
Up until now, the name Snapchat has been used not only for the globally popular application, but also for the company itself. However, its chief executive Evan Spiegel said that many people today only associate the app with a white ghost outline on a yellow background with the Snapchat brand, and that is why the new Snap company was created. It will not only have the Snapchat mobile application under it, but also new hardware products, such as Spectacles.
At the beginning, it is appropriate to add that Google has already tried a similar concept with its Glass, which, however, did not succeed and faded away without much fanfare. Snap's Spectacles are meant to be different. They are not intended to be a sure-fire replacement for a computer or phone, but rather as an addition to Snapchat that benefits from a key aspect – the camera.
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The camera system is the alpha and omega of this product. It consists of two lenses with a range angle of 115 degrees, which are located on the left and right side of the glasses. Using them, the user can shoot videos of 10 seconds (after pressing the appropriate button, this time can be increased by the same amount of time, but a maximum of half a minute), which will be automatically uploaded to Snapchat, respectively to the Memories section.
Snap's vision is to provide Spectacles owners with a more authentic shooting experience. Since they are placed in close proximity to the eyes and their camera lenses have a round shape, the result is almost identical to the fisheye format. The application will then crop the video and it will be possible to watch it both in portrait and landscape.
In addition, the advantage of Spectacles is that it is possible to film with them even without the presence of a smartphone, through which the footage is uploaded to Snapchat. The glasses are able to store the captured content until they are connected to the phone and transferred.
Spectacles will work with both iOS and Android, but the Apple operating system has the advantage that short videos can be published directly from the glasses using Bluetooth (if mobile data is active), with Android you need to wait for pairing over Wi-Fi.
Battery life is important for a product like camera glasses. Snap promises all-day operation, and in case the device runs out of power and there is no power source, it will be possible to use a special case (along the lines of AirPods), which can fully recharge Spectacles up to four times. Internally located diodes are used to indicate low battery. Among other things, they function as an assurance that the user is filming.
At least initially, however, poorer availability must be expected. The camera glasses for Snapchat will be very limited in terms of stock in the first few months, also because, as Evan Spiegel points out, it will take some getting used to such a product. Snap will charge $129 for one pair, in either black, dark teal, or coral red, but it's not yet known exactly when and where they'll go on sale. In addition, other things are unknown, such as what the resulting quality of the acquired content will be, whether they will be waterproof and how many will actually be officially offered for sale in the early stages.
Either way, with this wearable product, Snap is responding to the ever-evolving realm of multimedia, in which even major competitors are involved. Facebook is the main one. After all, Mark Zuckerberg himself, the head of the world's largest social network, said that videos have the potential to become a standard for communication as such. Snapchat relies on this aspect and practically made it famous. With the arrival of Spectacles camera glasses, the company could not only generate additional profits, but also set a new bar in video communication. Only time will tell if the Spectacles will really work.
