 It's been three years since the first version of Snapchat Spectacles and that first edition had a lot of buzz but it didn't sell too many units. Last year a second version kind of came and went. Now Snap is back with Spectacles 3. It's a redesigned, more powerful, and much pricier take on wearable computing. These things cost $380 up from $150 for Spectacles 2. Snap says they're intended for a more fashion-forward and creative audience but what can these things actually do and who should really buy them? So let's start with the design. Compared to Spectacles 2 which looked a lot like a toy, Spectacles 3 feels much more serious. They come in just two colors, black and a kind of tan that Snap calls mineral, and they have a new steel frame. I find that this steel frame isn't super comfortable, particularly over a long period of time. There's something that would just kind of dig into various parts of my head as I was walking around town with them. And as far as the design, it might just be a little too fashion-forward, at least for me. There's something about this giant steel bar running across the top of my forehead that feels a little bit insect-like or maybe even alien. Now let's talk about the tech in Spectacles 3. The big marquee feature this year is a second camera, and what that second camera means is that Spectacles can sense depth for the first time. So Spectacles now have a bunch of filters that kind of integrate the real world with Snaps. For example, there's one filter that puts hearts everywhere, and as you're walking through the video those hearts will kind of bounce off you. There's another flower filter that projects flowers onto the ground, and the shape kind of changes with the topography. When I talked with Snap CEO Evan Spiegel about Spectacles recently, he told me he saw them as a breakthrough for the company, because it's the first time that Snap has been able to integrate computing with the real world. Unfortunately though, that integration is only happening after the fact. I can't put on my Spectacles and just see Snap filters overlaid on top of the world. Instead, I have to open my phone, import Snaps from my glasses to the phone, and only then can I tap the edit button and start swiping through the filters. It's just a couple more steps than it feels like it should take. So there are going to be about ten of these filters available at launch that are exclusive to Spectacles 3, and I'd say that none of them has that immediate iconic appeal of past hit Snapchat filters like the dancing hot dog or the gender swap. But Snap is gonna let independent developers build their own filters that incorporate depth perception, and it'll be interesting to see what they come up with. In the meantime though, it feels mostly like a novelty. Spectacles 3 can use the second camera in another way, and it's by taking what Snap calls 3D photos. So you put on your Spectacles, you press and hold one of these camera buttons, and it will capture a sort of three dimensional image of the world around you. Once you've done that, you can build this cardboard viewer that is included with Spectacles 3, slide a phone in, and then kind of click through all of the 3D photos that you've taken. It's sort of similar to one of those old View Master gadgets, and it's based on previous things like Google Cardboard or Gear VR. It's a somewhat novel way of looking through images, but I don't know if at this point it's much more than a novelty. I think Spectacles 3 are a meaningful iteration of a product that is only going to get better over time. At the same time, they're definitely a product that most people shouldn't buy. So why does Snap keep making these? I asked Evan Spiegel that, and he was upfront with me. He said that he thinks that these kind of AR glasses aren't gonna hit mainstream adoption for 10 years. He says there are just too many constraints on the hardware that we have, but Snap thinks it's important to iterate in public. Every time it releases another generation of Spectacles, it's able to learn from its community, get feedback, and then incorporate that into the next edition. With Spectacles 3, for the first time, Snap is integrating its computing into the real world. It's opening up that tool for developers, and it's going to learn a bunch. I don't think it's going to sell a lot of Spectacles 3, but I do think that what it learns is going to make Spectacles 4 a much more interesting product. If you enjoyed the video, don't forget to like and subscribe to more videos from theverge.com. And if you're interested in Snapchat, want to know more about the business and everything to do with technology and democracy, how social networks are changing the world, I write a daily newsletter about it. You can find it at theverge.com.
 It's been three years since the first version of Snapchat Spectacles and that
 first edition had a lot of buzz but it didn't sell too many units. Last year a
 second version kind of came and went. Now Snap is back with Spectacles 3. It's a
 redesigned, more powerful, and much pricier take on wearable computing. These
 things cost $380 up from $150 for Spectacles 2. Snap says they're intended
 for a more fashion-forward and creative audience but what can these things
 actually do and who should really buy them?
 So let's start with the design. Compared to Spectacles 2 which looked a lot like
 a toy, Spectacles 3 feels much more serious. They come in just two colors,
 black and a kind of tan that Snap calls mineral, and they have a new steel frame.
 I find that this steel frame isn't super comfortable, particularly over a long
 period of time. There's something that would just kind of dig into various
 parts of my head as I was walking around town with them. And as far as the design,
 it might just be a little too fashion-forward, at least for me. There's
 something about this giant steel bar running across the top of my forehead
 that feels a little bit insect-like or maybe even alien. Now let's talk about
 the tech in Spectacles 3. The big marquee feature this year is a second camera, and
 what that second camera means is that Spectacles can sense depth for the first
 time. So Spectacles now have a bunch of filters that kind of integrate the real
 world with Snaps. For example, there's one filter that puts hearts everywhere, and
 as you're walking through the video those hearts will kind of bounce off you.
 There's another flower filter that projects flowers onto the ground, and the
 shape kind of changes with the topography. When I talked with Snap CEO
 Evan Spiegel about Spectacles recently, he told me he saw them as a breakthrough
 for the company, because it's the first time that Snap has been able to
 integrate computing with the real world. Unfortunately though, that integration is
 only happening after the fact. I can't put on my Spectacles and just see Snap
 filters overlaid on top of the world. Instead, I have to open my phone, import
 Snaps from my glasses to the phone, and only then can I tap the edit button and
 start swiping through the filters. It's just a couple more steps than it feels
 like it should take. So there are going to be about ten of these filters available
 at launch that are exclusive to Spectacles 3, and I'd say that none of
 them has that immediate iconic appeal of past hit Snapchat filters like the
 dancing hot dog or the gender swap. But Snap is gonna let independent developers
 build their own filters that incorporate depth perception, and it'll be
 interesting to see what they come up with. In the meantime though, it feels
 mostly like a novelty. Spectacles 3 can use the second camera in another way, and
 it's by taking what Snap calls 3D photos. So you put on your Spectacles, you press
 and hold one of these camera buttons, and it will capture a sort of three
 dimensional image of the world around you. Once you've done that, you can build
 this cardboard viewer that is included with Spectacles 3, slide a phone in, and
 then kind of click through all of the 3D photos that you've taken. It's sort of
 similar to one of those old View Master gadgets, and it's based on previous
 things like Google Cardboard or Gear VR. It's a somewhat novel way of looking
 through images, but I don't know if at this point it's much more than a novelty.
 I think Spectacles 3 are a meaningful iteration of a product that is only
 going to get better over time. At the same time, they're definitely a product
 that most people shouldn't buy. So why does Snap keep making these? I asked
 Evan Spiegel that, and he was upfront with me. He said that he thinks that
 these kind of AR glasses aren't gonna hit mainstream adoption for 10 years. He
 says there are just too many constraints on the hardware that we have, but Snap
 thinks it's important to iterate in public. Every time it releases another
 generation of Spectacles, it's able to learn from its community, get feedback,
 and then incorporate that into the next edition. With Spectacles 3, for the first
 time, Snap is integrating its computing into the real world. It's opening up that
 tool for developers, and it's going to learn a bunch. I don't think it's going
 to sell a lot of Spectacles 3, but I do think that what it learns is going to
 make Spectacles 4 a much more interesting product. If you enjoyed the
 video, don't forget to like and subscribe to more videos from theverge.com.
 And if you're interested in Snapchat, want to know more about the business and
 everything to do with technology and democracy, how social networks are
 changing the world, I write a daily newsletter about it. You can find it at
 theverge.com.