Evan Spiegel, CEO of Snap Inc., recently stated that as the important milestone of 2026 approaches, the parent company of Snapchat is entering a “decisive phase.” He indicated that the company’s future trajectory will heavily depend on the market performance of its AR glasses product Spectacles (abbreviated as “Specs”), while also being closely tied to artificial intelligence technology, advertising business, and diversified revenue models.
In June this year, Snap announced it was accelerating the development of a new generation of Specs AR glasses, planned for consumer release in 2026. Although specific specifications have not been disclosed, the company revealed that the new device will feature a lighter, thinner transparent optical design and a built-in AI assistant, achieving breakthroughs in interactive experience and functional integration. Spiegel emphasized that this product will become the “most strategically significant product” in Snap’s 14-year history. According to the latest news, indicating confidence in the device’s potential to reshape the AR landscape, and its market performance will directly impact the company’s position in the AR field over the next five years.
In a recent internal open letter, Spiegel acknowledged challenges faced by the company in 2025: strong growth momentum in the first half of the year, but a slowdown in year-over-year advertising revenue growth to 4% in the second quarter. However, he also stated that there is still an opportunity to lay the foundation for the “historic year” of 2026 by optimizing the business structure. According to his analysis, market demand for AR devices has entered an explosive phase, with consumers’ average daily screen time exceeding 7 hours, and rising physical goods manufacturing costs further highlight the economic value of AR technology.
Spiegel believes that the deep integration of AR and AI will fundamentally change how people work and live. He gave examples: in the future, users could quickly retrieve historical documents via voice commands, watch video content on private virtual screens, or collaborate with teams to review 3D models. In education, students could learn biology through virtual dissection; in social scenarios, friends could play games using a virtual chessboard. These application scenarios rely on the substitution of digital goods enabled by “photonics technology,” which can both reduce resource consumption and foster new forms of the digital economy.
Unlike the smartphone era, Spiegel emphasized that Specs’ core competitiveness lies in AI-driven personalized experiences, rather than simply porting mobile apps. He described: “This isn’t about stuffing phone apps into glasses, but building a context-aware intelligent system. Users will get a tailored interaction interface, and the device can understand usage habits through memory functions; this value appreciates over time.”
The current AR market is highly competitive, with tech giants like Meta, Google, Samsung, and Apple all having laid out plans in the XR device space. Existing market products encompass mixed reality headsets (e.g., Meta Quest 3, Apple Vision Pro), smart glasses (e.g., Ray-Ban Meta), and full AR glass prototypes (e.g., Meta Orion). The development goals for full AR glasses highly overlap with Snap’s sixth-generation Specs, both focusing on lightweight design, real-time context awareness, and multi-tasking capabilities.
To address the competition, Snap plans to restructure its internal organization, aiming to stimulate innovation through a “startup-style” management model. Specific measures include forming 5-7 cross-functional teams of 10-15 people each, implementing weekly demo days, 90-day sprint cycles, and rapid trial-and-error mechanisms. Spiegel stated that this structure can maintain the resource advantages of a large company while preserving the agility of a startup, and is key to breaking away from the smartphone paradigm and achieving a “human-centric computing transformation.”
