Spectacles, Snapchats Cute New Tech Accessory

Last week Snap Inc. (formerly  known as Snapchat) released Spectacles, making this their first step into the wearable world. Spectacles is a pair of cute, cat eye, sunglasses that record real time, hands free, video for their app, Snapchat. They really only do one thing, record video, but supposedly they do that thing well. The sunglasses come in a variety of bright colours that would look funky on anyone!

The glasses allow the wearer to shoot hands free, just tap for a ten second video clip to record. A spinning light on the other side of the glasses lets people know you’re recording, so it’s not too creepy! The clips are then sent to the Memories section of the users Snapchat account, waiting to be shared. Spectacles record video in a circular format so viewers can rotate their phone while watching the snap stories to view more of what the wearer was seeing in real time. Spectacles only takes video, not still photos, and the fun (sometimes horrific) filters Snapchat is known for are not yet part of the glasses.

From what it looks like Spectacles will be a fun tool that will push creativity and video creation a bit more. Whether people use it to document their travels, their kids, sports endeavours, or food creations- it’ll be exciting to see how people will use the hands free video element to tell short, visual, stories. It will also be interesting to see how many other social media companies will follow the lead of Snap Inc. and enter the wearable world.

The glasses, which sell for $129 USD, have proven difficult to nab. Snap Inc. released their glasses last week but the only way to get a pair was to track down a Snapbot vending machine that popped up randomly around the US. Perhaps the next time you’re on vacation you’ll be seeing people wearing Spectacles to document their trip instead of welding the selfie stick!