Tech giants including Meta, Snap, Google and others are racing to build smart glasses. It could change our lives for the better or worse.

These new AR glasses are amazing. And extremely goofy. Before I get to Snap’s new Spectacles, a confession: I have a long history of putting goofy new things on my face and liking it. Back in 2011, I tried on Sony’s head-mounted 3D glasses and,

Snap partnered with chipmaker Qualcomm and OpenAI’s ChatGPT to create the AR Spectacles, which allow users to place digital images and filters onto the real world through the lenses.

Snap announced an upgraded version of its Spectacles augmented-reality glasses on Tuesday, doubling down on its bet that wearable devices to enhance the view of the real world will be one of the next frontiers in tech.

Sticking their goal of tech-augmented eyesight, the makers of the popular photo app Snapchat have launched their latest pair of glasses that can superimpose digital objects into real environments. The new generation of "Spectacles" with transparent lenses offers better display quality and faster response times.

Snap on Tuesday, September 17, introduced its fifth-generation augmented reality glasses, Spectacles, designed to overlay digital graphics onto the real world. These glasses are currently only accessible to developers who are willing to pay a monthly subscription fee of $99 for a year.