SnapChat unveils spectacles to snap all those chats

SnapChat is gone; it has reinvented itself as Snap Inc, a "camera company" that will begin producing hardware to complement its existing SnapChat app. The hardware in question is Spectacles, Bluetooth and wifi-connected sunglasses with an integrated camera capable of recording a day's worth of images and video on a single charge.

If this sounds familiar, it is because you are thinking of Google Glass, the wearable we all loved to hate. It has since been consigned to the "dumb ideas" bin at Alphabet Inc (all the cool kids are changing their name) after wearers inspired the term "glasshole". It turns out people were not ready to have their every move recorded by someone wearing a Geordi La Forge visor.

Spectacles may succeed where Glass has failed. Appearance-wise they are high-street fashion compatible and are expected to be relatively cheap (about $130). In terms of privacy, Spectacles will only record 10-second video bursts and the camera lights up to show friends you are about to snap.

www.spectacles.com