Former Snap Engineer Slams New Spectacles as Poor

Snap’s latest augmented reality Spectacles have received strong criticism from one of the engineers who worked on their development. Sterling Crispin, a former design engineer for Snap, described the glasses, which were unveiled recently, as "a disaster."

Crispin took to X (formerly Twitter) to express his disappointment, stating, "I spent about a year working on these at Snap, and I have a million negative things to say, but the product speaks for itself – it's obviously bad." He further added, "I hate these things."

While Crispin acknowledged that all AR and VR devices struggle with constraints like size, weight, battery life, and performance, he was particularly critical of the feature balance in Snap's new Spectacles. However, he didn't single out any specific features but rather referred to the device as a combination of "bad decisions" that compounded the issues. According to him, everyone involved in the project was aware of the problems and their sources.

Snap, on the other hand, is not positioning these Spectacles as ready for the mass market. The new version isn’t available for public purchase and is instead being offered to a select group of Snapchat AR developers. Snap's CEO, Evan Spiegel, mentioned in an interview with The Verge that he doesn’t foresee AR glasses becoming a significant business until the end of the decade.

Despite this, the Spectacles are still pricey, and the primary purpose is to showcase the technology to developers, who are charged $99 per month to rent the device with a minimum one-year commitment. Online, users on Reddit and X have mocked the 45-minute battery life and 46-degree field of view, slight improvements over the previous model's 30-minute battery life and 26.3-degree field of view.

In a hands-on review, tech journalist Alex Heath noted that the hardware has improved with the fifth-generation Spectacles, but the software remains basic for a standalone device. He also commented that the field of view still falls short of making augmented reality feel immersive, resulting in an experience that’s less engaging than the real world.