Snap has released a new operating system for its augmented reality (AR) Spectacles, which are to be released to the public in 2026.
Snap OS 2.0 adds content, browsing and social features to the Specs, which use real-time AI-powered experiences that invite users to interact naturally using their hands and voice.
Snapchat’s Spotlight feature on the mobile app has been reimagined for the Specs, allowing users to watch creator content via spatial overlays onto the real world, with comments visible in 3D space.
The company stated that AI is central to the Spectacles experience, with Lenses that aim to understand the real world and provide real-time information on queries, from how to change a tyre to recommending recipes based on the food in your fridge.
Dior is one of the first brands to get involved, creating immersive lenses that users can interact with via the Spectacles, similar to the Snapchat app.
Hundreds of developers from 30 countries have been given early access to the Specs to build Lenses, powered by Gemini and ChatGPT.
Evan Spiegel, Snapchat’s founder and chief executive, published a letter sent to Snap staff on 8 September, marking 14 years of the company:
“For more than a decade, we’ve been building towards a new kind of computer, one that doesn’t live on a desk or in your pocket, but one you wear, built inside a pair of glasses. Specs are the continuation of our vision to make computing more human.
“The need for Specs has become urgent. People spend over seven hours a day staring at screens. AI is transforming the way we work, shifting us from micromanaging files and apps to supervising agents, and the costs of manufacturing physical goods are skyrocketing. Specs address all three challenges with eyes-up computing, a new AI-native operating system that understands your context, and the replacement of physical products with photons, reducing waste while opening a vast new economy of digital goods.”
Snap OS 2.0 includes a new home screen with widgets and bookmarks. The updated toolbar gives users more control, with the ability to type or speak a website URL, navigate history and refresh the page. Users can also resize windows to a preferred aspect ratio.
The browser function includes WebXR support, giving users access to immersive augmented reality experiences that they can access directly from any WebXR-enabled website.
The Gallery Lens lets users view photos and videos taken with Spectacles in a spacious, interactive layout.
Travel Mode has been introduced, which stabilises AR content and tracking systems while on the move, so if users are in a moving vehicle, the digital content stays anchored and stable.
Snap has been developing the “lightweight, immersive” Specs for a decade. It is a wearable computer built into a pair of glasses, aiming to make computing more human by letting users interact with the digital and physical worlds using just their hands and voice, freeing them from traditional screens.
Apple and Meta are also making considerable movements in the wearable tech space, away from mobile screens, with the Apple Vision Pro and Meta AI Glasses with Ray-Ban.
Spiegel added: “Specs are not about cramming today’s phone apps into a pair of glasses. They represent a shift away from the app paradigm to an AI-first experience — personalized, contextual, and shared.
“Specs are also an enormous business opportunity. One pair of Specs can substitute for many screens. Our operating system, personalized with context and memory, compounds in value over time. A marketplace of digital goods, from spatial Lenses to virtual tools, has near-zero marginal cost and global reach. Specs are how we move beyond the limits of smartphones, beyond red-ocean competition, and into a once-in-a-generation transformation towards human-centered computing.”
Earlier this summer, Snap unveiled functionalities for Specs which included Spatial Tips, where users can ask about anything they see and get AI-powered tips, Super Travel, which translates signs, menus and converts currencies for travellers, and Translation, which translates speech from over 40 languages into text, as well as closed captions.
This story first appeared on Campaign UK.