The new AI-powered Snaps Specs are here – and they work with OpenAI and Gemini

The success of Meta Ray-Bans has helped demonstrate there’s a demand for lightweight, everyday glasses packing additional tech. Snap is getting in on the action with all-new Specs AR glasses that address the biggest pain points of their predecessors.

Next-gen Snap Specs

At the Augmented World Exhibition (AWE) 2025, Snap announced its next-generation, AI-centered Specs. Packed into a lighter form factor and powered by Snapdragon, these Specs use advanced machine learning to understand the world around you and offer AI assistance in your everyday life. They also offer entertainment-gear AR experiences such as shared games and a portable workstation for browsing, streaming, and more.

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The fifth generation of Spectacles was released in 2024 but was only available to developers, who could build new experiences using the glasses. The new Specs will also be offered as a dev kit, but according to the company, the releases are paving the way for the public launch of Specs in 2026.

When I tried the fifth-generation version myself, I was very impressed with the realistic AR experience and how well it felt anchored in the three-dimensional world around me. My biggest complaint was the sheer weight of the glasses, making this update most welcome. Beyond the hardware, the software powering the experiences — Snap OS — also got a myriad of upgrades.

Snap OS with AI assistance

In the era of AI, AR glasses would not be considered useful unless they could also provide AI assistance. To meet that demand, Snapchat is including deep integrations with OpenAI and Google Gemini, which developers can use to build multi-modal AI-powered Lenses that the Spectacles community can access. Snap provides some examples of developer use cases, such as using AI to provide text translation, current conversion, suggest recipes, and more.

(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, ZDNET’s parent company, filed an April 2025 lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)

At Google I/O last month, Google showed the public its long-awaited smart glasses, which pack Gemini assistance, in-lens displays, speakers, cameras, and mics into the form factor of traditional eyeglasses. The combination of a light form factor, multimodal AI assistance, and AR Lenses from the new Specs resembles those found on the Google smartglasses.

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The company also introduced new APIs — Depth Module, Automated Speech Recognition, and Snap3D — meant to help developers create meaningful experiences on Spectacles.

With the Depth Module API, Snap says, developers can unlock better spatial intelligence by having the API translate 2D information from large language models to accurately anchor AR information into three dimensions. The Automated Speech Recognition API offers real-time transcription with support for 40+ languages with “high accuracy.” Lastly, developers can easily generate 3D objects inside Lenses via the Snap3D API.

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Snap also launched tools to help developers build location-based experiences, including a fleet management app in which developers can monitor and manage multiple pairs of Specs in the app; guided mode, which enables developers to program the Specs to launch directly in single- or multiplayer mode; and Guided Navigation, which allows developers to build AR-guided tools. There will also soon be WebXR support in the browser for developers to build WebXR experiences.

If you are a developer interested in building for Specs before they launch publicly, you can sign up for the developer program.

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