The Santa Monica, California company debuted its first model of Snap Spectacles in 2016. They were brightly colored circular frames that focused primarily on shooting photos and video, which were captured as wide-angled circles that evoked the sort of fun, anarchic energy of a skateboarding video. They didn't have any augmented reality features at all, and were more akin to early Meta Ray Bans. Crucially, the Snapchat Spectacles were fun, trendy (depending on your style) glasses that looked far more like real, fashionable sunglasses than the typically monstrous smart glasses: rectangular head ornaments, or the dorky and oft-mocked Google Glass. Snap released a few more versions of its circular Spectacles, but in 2021 its ambitions shifted in an effort to incorporate augmented reality'images, words, and graphics projected into your field of view so the visuals seem to hover right in front of you. Snap's AR-enabled Spectacles traded the whimsical, teen-friendly aesthetic for a black,...
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