The AI smart glasses market is booming, and Snap wants in.

Specs, Snap's eyewear subsidiary, announced Friday a partnership with Qualcomm to power all future Specs generations with Snapdragon system-on-a-chip technology, ahead of its first flagship consumer release later this year.

While the company has yet to release many details about Specs, it did disclose that the smart glasses will allow users to “see, hear, and interact with digital content just like it’s in your physical space.” This description suggests that the glasses will have AR capabilities, a feature that could help them stand out from competitors.

Despite the Meta Ray-Ban Displays and the upcoming Google glasses having in-lens displays that can show users applications and notifications in color, they lack AR intelligence to place them in your environment and accurately map spatial elements.

Before the consumer version launched, Snap Spectacles were available only to developers in the Spectacles Developer Program. I had the opportunity to test these out and was incredibly impressed by the AR experiences, object recognition, environmental understanding, and accurate visual placement. My biggest qualm was their bulk, but the forthcoming consumer pair will likely have a much lighter form factor.

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon platforms have powered multiple previous generations of the Snap Spectacles and will enable “intelligent, context‑aware experiences to run directly on-device,” according to the post. Qualcomm, of course, has abundant experience powering smart glasses, including the most popular on the market, the Meta Ray-Bans.

Our Deeper View

With an AR component, Snap's Specs could unlock a whole new market for smart glasses, pushing experiences beyond being merely helpful, like notification overlays and turn signals, into something far more immersive. Imagine turn-by-turn directions perfectly overlaid on the road ahead, or watching a movie projected onto your wall, all from a pair of lightweight glasses rather than a bulky VR/AR headset. The key to making the smartglasses worthwhile, though, will remain the same: ensure the everyday AI features are useful and that the glasses are comfortable to wear.