News

Samsung Reportedly to Debut First Smart Glasses at Galaxy Unpacked on July 22nd

May 12, 2026 From roadtovr

Images and specs of Samsung’s upcoming smart glasses may have already leaked, however a new report suggests we may get an eye-full at the company’s Galaxy Unpacked product event in July.

At the time of this writing, Samsung hasn’t confirmed when its next Unpacked event will be, however according to Seoul Economic Daily, the South Korean tech giant is reportedly getting ready to hold its its next big product launch event in London on July 22nd.

There, we can expect to see a first look at the Galaxy Z Fold8 and Flip8 next-gen foldables, Galaxy Watch9 series, as well as its first smart glasses, which the company confirmed will arrive sometime this year.

Citing industry sources, Samsung is reportedly working with South Korea-based eyewear brand Gentle Monster “to enhance design and practical competitiveness” of the device, which is set to run Google’s Android XR operating system.

Render based on reportedly leaked images | Image courtesy Android Headlines

At Google’s I/O developer conference in May, Google announced it was partnering with Gentle Monster in addition to separate efforts with Warby Parker, Gucci parent company Kering, and Samsung to produce the first slate of Android XR smart glasses, which are expected to compete with Ray-Ban Meta.

Late last year however, Samsung announced it was working with Gentle Monster and Warby Parker on styling, making it less clear what devices we’ll see and which company is principally behind them.

Like Ray-Ban Meta and Oakley Meta smart glasses, those initial units are expected to be audio-only, i.e. not include a display of any kind, but instead include microphones, camera, speakers, and onboard AI.

The report notes Samsung’s smart glasses, which some have dubbed ‘Galaxy Glasses’, are expected to launch in Q3 of this year.

Notably, they will be positioned “not as a mere wearable device but as a core ‘edge device’ that completes its AI ecosystem, entering into full-scale competition with global companies such as Meta of the U.S. and Xiaomi of China,” the report maintains.

Additionally, Samsung is expected to connect its smart glasses with its broader device ecosystem, including smartphones and SmartThings home appliances, the report says.

This follows a supposed leak of images and specs of Samsung’s first smart glasses, which is reportedly including specs very similar to the latest Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 2).

The company is also reportedly working on more advanced units, as per code mined from the most recent One UI 9 firmware, which revealed a new and wholly distinct model number that some have speculated could be a pair of smart glasses with built-in display.

Meta’s New AI-Powered VR Toolkit Lets Anyone Build WebXR Experiences Without Coding

May 11, 2026 From roadtovr

Meta announced a major update to its open-source Immersive Web SDK (IWSDK) framework, which lets developers build VR experiences on the web using WebXR—now including an “agentic workflow” powered by AI coding assistants which aims to reduce

Originally launched at Meta Connect last year, IWSDK aimed to simplify VR development tasks like physics, hand-tracking, movement, grab interactions, and spatial UI, something Meta says allows creators can focus on ideas instead of low-level engineering.

The new addition, which Meta announced in a developer blog post, now includes an “agentic workflow” powered by AI coding assistants such as Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, and Codex.

“In practice, agentic workflows mean the AI does more than generate code; it also tests and validates it. This closed-loop system is essential for high-quality, reliable results. IWSDK’s AI integration closes this loop entirely, offering developers maximum productivity,” Meta says.

To demonstrate the system, Meta rebuilt its 2022 VR gardening demo ‘Project Flowerbed‘, previously made up of tens of thousands of lines of custom code. Using IWSDK’s AI workflow and existing art assets, the entire application was recreated in only 15 hours, the company says, noting the tool isn’t about “fixing a typo or generating boilerplate. It’s a full, interactive VR experience for web, rebuilt by AI using IWSDK.”

Meta’s main reasoning behind its latest (and certainly not last) injection of AI is mainly centered around ease of deployment. Web-based VR can be tested instantly in a browser without lengthy compile times, and can also be deployed across desktop and VR headsets via a simple URL, bypassing app stores and downloads. Notably, the company says over one million monthly users already access WebXR content on Quest.

If you’re looking to learn more, or explore Meta’s new AI workflow, check out IWSDK here. You can also find the open-source project (under MIT licensing) over on GitHub.

XPANCEO is Hoping to Solve AR Contact Lens Challenge with Ultra Tiny Solid-State Batteries

May 5, 2026 From roadtovr

If augmented reality glasses are the future, AR contact lenses are probably a bit farther away. Still, smart contact lens startup XPANCEO says it’s hoping to address at least one of the technology’s main issues with the inclusion of miniature solid-state batteries.

In partnership with France-based solid-state battery startup ITEN, XPANCEO announced it’s developing a proof of concept AR contact lens with a built-in microbattery—something the companies hope will solve a main challenge in ocular wearables right now: conventional batteries are thick, not durable enough, and aren’t suitable to be used in in devices worn directly on the human eye.

XPANCEO has been developing smart contact lenses with AR and health monitoring capabilities since its founding in 2021. Along the way, the UAE-based unicorn has been attempting to address the sort of strict design constraints inherent to XR contact lenses, such as thickness, mass, heat generation, and material selection, with biocompatibility and user safety.

When it comes to powering smart contacts, the company says that a number of tasks can be powered by simply harvesting energy from the user’s body, like the mechanical energy from blinking, thermal differences across the lens, electrochemical reactions with tear fluid, and integrated solar cells.

Prototype Microbattery for smart contacts | Image courtesy XPANCEO,

High-energy functions, like displaying AR imagery, require sustained “milliwatt-level power,” the company says, making high-density energy storage a must for future AR contacts. And at least one part of that challenge could be overcome with solid-state batteries, the companies maintain, which unlike lithium-ion cells, cannot leak, swell, or explode.

“If a failure occurs, the system simply stops supplying power. ITEN solutions can be engineered in ultra-thin, flexible formats compatible with soft contact-lens substrates, while still providing high enough power density for the short bursts of energy required by AR displays and wireless connectivity, without rapid degradation,” XPANCEO says.

Although promising, and potentially safer and more energy-dense than current battery tech, solid-state batteries are also expensive, hard to manufacture at scale, and not yet widely available despite active development by companies like Toyota and QuantumScape.

ITEN isn’t producing the sort of solid-state batteries you might find in future electric vehicles or home energy storage though; the Dardilly, France-based startup specializes in nanomaterial fabrication to produce fully ceramic electrodes with a patented “mesoporous structure”—essentially allowing small batteries to deliver higher power and charge and discharge more efficiently.

Since May 2025, ITEN has been mass-producing its first-gen solid-state ceramic microbatteries, which will find its way into XPANCEO’s in-development smart contacts.

“The ITEN–XPANCEO proof of concept demonstrates that high-power-density energy storage can now be manufactured in volume production and safely integrated into a contact lens, marking a crucial milestone in making smart contact lenses commercially viable,” XPANCEO says.

“By combining ITEN’s solid-state energy storage technology with cutting-edge smart lens innovation, the ITEN partnership with XPANCEO opens a new frontier in compact, high-power energy solutions,” adds Vincent Cobée, CEO of ITEN. “Together, we are enabling a new generation of intelligent and highly integrated systems that demand both performance and reliability—delivering power where space is limited and expectations are high, with the added assurance of full safety enabled by inherently stable, non-flammable product architecture.”

This follows XPANCEO’s latest (and largest) funding round to date, a Series A round last July which brought to the company $250 million in addition to giving it a $1.35 billion valuation.

Samsung’s First Smart Glasses Reportedly Just Leaked, Including Images & Specs

April 28, 2026 From roadtovr

Images and specs for Samsung’s upcoming smart glasses have reportedly leaked, showing off what could be the South Korean tech giant’s answer to Ray-Ban Meta.

The images, which were obtained by Android Headlines, don’t appear to be leaked marketing images as such, but rather “based on real-life pictures of a testing unit of these smart glasses,” Android Headlines says—ostensibly done to obscure the leak’s source.

The report also included a brief spec sheet for the company’s first smart glasses, which, much like Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, don’t include a display of any kind.

Samsung ‘Galaxy Glasses’ Specs (reported)

Processor	Qualcomm Snapdragon AR1
Battery	155mAh
Camera	12MP Sony IMX681
Connectivity	WiFi, Bluetooth 5.3
Weight	~50g
Audio	Directional speakers; bone-conduction tech in patents
Lenses	Photochromic transition lenses
Platform	Android XR with Gemini AI

While we’re still waiting for the full reveal, which could come in July for Samsung’s next Unpacked product showcase, it seems Samsung isn’t breaking any molds here as it appears to offering up a very Ray-Ban Meta-inspired design and spec sheet.

Granted, the reported spec sheet above is far from comprehensive—it doesn’t include information on photo/video capture resolution, frame rate, expected battery life, charging case, or even the onboard mic array.

Still, provided the specs are authentic, it will be packing (the same or similar) 12MP camera sensor, Qualcomm Snapdragon AR1 chipset (very likely also Gen 1), and a battery close to Ray-Ban Meta’s.

A notable inclusion are also photochromic transition lenses, which are optional paid add-ons for all of Ray-Ban Meta’s frame styles, which include Wayfarer, Skyler, Headliner, Blayzer and Scriber models.

Going by Android Headline’s images, one big difference appears to be the unit’s more prominent camera bumps—a possible stylistic choice so people nearby can more easily tell the user is essentially wearing camera glasses.

Notably, Meta is currently facing a class action lawsuit in the US over privacy concerns tied to its Ray-Ban smart glasses, as it’s been accused of sending private camera footage to an offshore subcontractor for manual review in effort to train its AI models.

Android Headlines also echoed rumors that Samsung’s smart glasses will be priced somewhere between $379 and $499, which happens to be Ray-Ban Meta’s exact price range for the models mentioned above (without optional add-ons).

Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 2) | Image courtesy Meta

While many are calling the device ‘Galaxy Glasses’, there is currently no indication this will be the final naming scheme, despite previous trademarks for the name filed in 2023.

That said, Samsung’s smart glasses won’t be only pair running Google’s Android XR operating system. Google announced last year it’s working with Gentle Monster and Warby Parker to create multiple models for release sometime this year, some of which may include displays.

Gucci parent company Kering also recently announced it’s working with Google to create Gucci-branded smart glasses, ostensibly also running Android XR.

This follows a recent report that Samsung is currently working on its second pair of smart glasses, which similar to Meta Ray-Ban Display, which was released last year in the US for $800.

Code named ‘Haean’, unconfirmed rumors suggest the display-clad Samsung glasses will arrive sometime in 2027, and be priced somewhere between $600 and $900.

Gucci Partners with Google on Luxury Smart Glasses, Reportedly Launching Next Year

April 27, 2026 From roadtovr

French luxury group Kering announced it’s working with Google to bring Gucci-branded smart glasses to market sometime next year, potentially becoming the segment’s first luxury brand.

Kering, which also owns a host of brands including Yves Saint Laurent, Balenciaga, and Bottega Veneta, has been working to revive Gucci following a sharp decline in revenue—roughly 19–22% in 2025 alone—which also prompted the company to fire Gucci creative director Sabato De Sarno.

Gucci’s new strategy marks a return to classic designs as well as increased investment in eyewear and jewelry, a smaller segment which actually grew amid Gucci’s downward trajectory.

Speaking to Reuters, Kering CEO Luca de Meo also revealed the Gucci parent company is now working with Google to release a pair of smart glasses, noting that a pair could launch “[p]robably next year, 2027.”

Ray-Ban Meta ‘BLAYZER’ model | Image courtesy Meta, EssilorLuxottica

Notably, this would put Kering in more direct competition with EssilorLuxottica, which extended a multi-year partnership to 2030 with Meta to produce Oakley and Ray-Ban smart glasses.

And business has been good. EssilorLuxxottica announced in February it sold over seven million smart glasses in 2025, effectively tripling lifetime smart glasses revenue since the release of Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 1) smart glasses in 2023.

Granted, that revenue bump accounted for multiple frame styles, including a hardware refresh of its popular Ray-Ban Meta glasses (Gen 2), Oakley Meta HSTN, Oakley Meta Vanguard, and its $800 Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses, the first to include a heads-up display.

With the addition of Gucci, it could potentially allow Google’s Android XR operating system to cover a much wider price range than either Meta or Apple, the latter of which is reportedly preparing a number of smart glasses styles for release in late 2026 or early 2027.

Google is also slated to release smart glasses frames from Gentle Monster and US-based eyewear brand Warby Parker, as well as Samsung, all of which are expected to release sometime this year.

Samsung Reportedly Working on More Advanced Smart Glasses, Possibly Including a Display

April 23, 2026 From roadtovr

Samsung is reportedly working on a pair of smart glasses that could be more advanced than its forthcoming competitors to Ray-Ban Meta.

Android Authority maintains it’s found evidence of a third pair of smart glasses in the source code of Samsung’s upcoming One UI 9 firmware, revealing a new model number: ‘SM-O500’, code named ‘Haean’.

Notably, two model numbers are already known: ‘SM-O200P’ and ‘SM-O200J’, code named ‘Jinju’, which are likely to be associated with the Android XR-based smart glasses Samsung recently confirmed will release sometime this year.

Those are expected to be similar to Ray-Ban Meta, in that they’ll essentially be ‘audio-only’, including microphones, camera, speakers, but no form of display.

Prototype Android XR smartglasses | Image courtesy Google

As SM-O500 follows the same numbering and lettering scheme as those two known smart glasses models, it could indicate Samsung is already working on ecosystem support for the ostensible next-gen device.

Based off prior rumors, SamMobile further suggests it may even be a display-clad version coming in 2027, similar to Meta Ray-Ban Display ($800) released late last year in the US.

Granted, as Android Authority notes, its source code sweep of One UI 9 isn’t a smoking gun. APK teardowns of the sort can be useful in revealing future releases, but may also not make it to a public release.

What we do know thus far: Google, the creator of Android XR, announced last year it was partnering with Samsung as well as Gentle Monster and US-based eyewear brand Warby Parker to release the company’s first generation of Android XR-based smart glasses.

Google also hopes to release a model with built-in displays for visual output. The company showed off two prototypes last year, including both a monocular and stereoscopic model to demonstrate Android XR’s ability to adapt to multiple hardware configurations.

Still, there’s no release date in sight for any of the Android XR-running smart glasses. The inclusion of ecosystem tie-ins in One UI 9 (based on Android 17) could mean we’ll find out more soon, however. Android 17 is expected to release in June 2026, with One UI 9 expected a month later, which could hold more clues.

Apple’s New CEO Has a Background in VR Headsets, But is Reportedly Bearish on Vision Pro

April 21, 2026 From roadtovr

Apple announced that CEO Tim Cook is stepping down, and John Ternus, a long-time Apple veteran, is set to take his place. As head of hardware engineering, Ternus oversaw the launch of Vision Pro in addition to a slew of core Apple products over the years, although the new CEO may have some reservations about the company’s premium XR headset moving forward.

Fresh out of the University of Pennsylvania, where he majored in mechanical engineering, the soon-to-be Apple CEO actually did a four-year stint at Virtual Research Systems, a now-defunct hardware company making some of the first commercially available VR headsets.

Virtual Research’s PC VR headsets were decidedly of a different era, although they helped spark the latest generation. Just three years prior to the release of Oculus Rift DK1, in 2010 Oculus founder Palmer Luckey even called an owner of a Virtual Research V8 a “lucky bastard”, noting the device’s 60-degree field-of-view was “pretty fantastic” more than a decade after the headset’s release.

Virtual Reality Systems V8 | Image courtesy ResearchGate

Notably, as Ternus was a mechanical engineer at Virtual Research Systems from 1997-2001, he likely worked on the V8, which came out at the tail end of the VR craze of the ’90s.

Leaving Virtual Research Systems in 2001 for Apple, Ternus worked his way up through a number of the company’s hardware teams, contributing to the development of multiple generations of core products, including iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

His biggest role came in 2021, when Ternus became Apple’s Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering, taking over from Dan Riccio. As a result, Ternus also inherited the company’s long-term gamble in XR, which spanned more than a decade in the making, as he oversaw Vision Pro’s launch in 2023.

Still, despite his XR lineage, Ternus seems to be skeptical of Vision Pro’s place in Apple’s lineup.

As mentioned by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman last month, Ternus has shown some trepidation around Apple’s previous moves in the past, including the now-cancelled Apple Car project as well as Vision Pro, which has underperformed relative to other hardware launched under Ternus, including the Apple Watch and AirPods.

“When the company has taken swings at big new product categories in recent years, Ternus has often been in the conservative camp,” Gurman says. “He was circumspect about Apple building a car, fearing it would distract the company, drain profits and pull engineers from core products. He was similarly wary of the mixed-reality headset that became the Vision Pro, drawing on his experience of trying to create a virtual-reality head-worn device at a startup in the 1990s. In both of those cases his skepticism was prescient. Apple eventually killed the car, and the Vision Pro has been a bust.”

Slated to take over as CEO once Cook officially steps down this summer, he’s also inheriting the company’s years-long efforts in developing AR glasses, which Cook reportedly hopes they can release before Meta.

“Tim cares about nothing else,” Bloomberg reported last year. “It’s the only thing he’s really spending his time on from a product development standpoint.”

Apple Vision Pro (M5) | Image courtesy Apple

It remains to be seen just how enthusiastic Apple’s new CEO will be on pushing those segment-defining XR devices though. Heading into the second half of the decade, the Cupertino tech giant is ostensibly now balancing ambitions across more segments than ever, including the new consumer-friendly Mac Neo ($600) which is making headway in stripping market share from a host of mid-tier Windows laptops.

Meanwhile, the company’s XR hardware roadmap may be taking a slightly unexpected turn. Last month a separate report from Gurman detailed a move by Apple to more heavily invest in a competitor to Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses—a stark departure from Apple’s initial XR strategy, which supposedly include three distinct categories: an iPhone-tethered AR headset with wireless controller, a high-end mixed reality headset, and standalone AR glasses.

Whatever the case, Ternus’s entry as CEO marks a decisive next chapter as the company. And we’ll be watching to see how he ultimately views Vision Pro, be it a dead end or a launchpad to sleeker, more consumer-friendly XR devices in the future. As it is, we’re still waiting to hear more about the reported follow-ups to Vision Pro, which supply chain leaks suggest could include two new headsets.

Bigscreen Reveals New Halo Strap Design for ‘Beyond 2’ PC VR Headset, Shipping Starts in June

April 17, 2026 From roadtovr

Bigscreen has revealed a major redesign to Bigscreen Beyond 2’s long-promised halo headstrap mount, which the company says will begin shipping out starting in June.

After months of waiting, Bigscreen has finally shown off the long-awaited Halo Mount for Beyond 2 and 2e, its thin and light PC VR headset which shipped in March 2025.

According to a company blog post, improvements over the old Halo Mount design include a new clip-on mechanism which requires no adhesives, as well as support for third-party accessories thanks to an M3 brass-threaded screw hole for mods.

It also features an improved flip-up mechanism, extra USB extension for better cable travel, and easier vertical adjustment for better forehead positioning, the company says.

Bigscreen’s newly redesigned Halo Mount | Image courtesy Bigscreen

“After a year of iterating on prototypes, we built the first production versions of the Halo Mount last year,” Bigscreen explains. “The early units (commonly known as “DVTs”) met most but not all of our goals. We shipped these DVTs to customers for testing and received both positive and negative feedback.”

Then, in December, the company says it made the call at “a very significant financial cost” to delay the Halo Mount’s mass production due to negative feedback from testers, which prompted the company to go back to the drawing board. See the previous Halo Mount design below:

Bigscreen’s previous Halo Mount design | Image courtesy Bigscreen

Now, Bigscreen says it’s aiming to ship a “small volume” first batch in June, with a greater run of 10,000 units starting in July. The Halo Mount is currently available for pre-order, priced at $180/€169.

“Due to the large volume of demand for the Halo Mount, it will take a couple of months to complete all Halo Mount preorders,” Bigscreen says. “We expect to achieve this goal by the end of the summer, and will have sufficient inventory for fast shipping thereafter.”

Notably, Bigscreen’s Halo Mount can be used with any Beyond strap, including the supplied Soft Strap, optional Audio Strap, as well as third-party modded straps, such as Apple Vision Pro’s Knit Band.

Additionally, it can be used with all facial interfaces offered by Bigscreen, including the Custom-Fit Cushion and the Universal-Fit Cushion, as well as without a cushion for greater peripheral vision.

As a part of the update, the company also announced that Beyond 2 and Beyond 2e orders are generally shipping within 1–3 business days, with most Universal-Fit configurations sometimes shipping the same day, following major improvements in production and logistics.

Due to recent supply chain disruptions linked to Middle East conflicts and rising air freight costs, which the company says has caused temporary shortages of the Crystal Clear Beyond 2e and Universal-Fit Cushions, shipping times for those units have been delayed by 2–4 weeks.

Bigscreen says these issues are being resolved and expects normal shipping speeds to resume by late April.

Monkeys Navigate Virtual Worlds Using Thought Alone in New BCI Study

April 17, 2026 From roadtovr

University researchers at KU Leuven in Belgium have shown that monkeys can navigate complex virtual environments using a brain-computer interface (BCI) setup, which remarkably involves relatively little user training.

As reported in New Scientist, three rhesus macaques were implanted with Utah array BCI devices containing 96 electrodes in each of three brain regions: the primary motor cortex and the dorsal and ventral premotor cortices.

While the primary motor cortex is involved in voluntary movement, a region of the brain Elon Musk’s Neuralink taps into through its various animal research models and recent human clinical trials, the premotor cortices are thought to be dedicated to planning, organizing, and initiating those movements.

The key innovation isn’t the hardware itself though, as Utah arrays are widely used in research when reading neuronal activity, but rather the method the study goes about decoding that information, and making it actionable in 3D environments.

In the study, which was lead by KU Leuven’s Peter Janssen, the rhesus macaques were initially trained once from a short passive observation phase, and then were given a variety of virtual tasks while wearing 3D shutter glasses and monitor with stereoscopic images. Tasks included moving various objects in a virtual space, including a sphere, a monkey avatar, and even themselves via a first-person perspective.

As noted by New Scientist, many previous human trials involve asking people to actively think of a physical movement, like raising or lowering a finger to move a cursor on a screen, which is then translated to on-screen movement. Janssen believes however the study’s specific placement of the BCI has accessed what could be a more intuitive connection to movement, potentially requiring less training.

“We cannot ask these monkeys, of course, but we just think that it’s a more intuitive way of controlling an a computer, basically,” Janssen tells New Scientist, who notes that current methods can feel as foreign to implant recipients as “trying to move your ears.”

While the study hopes to pave the way for similar results in humans, which could unlock things like controlling electric wheelchairs, Janssen also believes it could allow people with paralysis to intuitively navigate virtual worlds.

“There’s a bit of work necessary to know exactly where to implant a human because a lot of these areas are not very well known in humans, where they are exactly,” Janssen says. “But once we figure that out, it should be possible. It should actually be easier because you can explain to the human what they are supposed to do.”

Snap Confirms Mass Layoffs Ahead of Next-gen ‘Specs’ AR Glasses Rollout

April 15, 2026 From roadtovr

Snap is laying off around 1,000 employees, the Snapchat parent confirmed today. Specs Inc., its recently formed AR glasses subsidiary, is reportedly not being affected, however, as the cuts are aimed at further insulating the traditional Snapchat business from its new AR subsidiary.

Spiegel announced the news in an internal memo, published by Business Insider, which is confirmed to affect 1,000 team members, including 16% of Snap’s full-time employees. Spiegel also confirmed Snap has now closed more than 300 open roles.

“Last fall, I described Snap as facing a crucible moment, requiring a new way of working that is faster and more efficient, while pivoting towards profitable growth,” Spiegel says in the memo. “Over the past several months, we have carefully reviewed the work required to best serve our community and partners, and made tough choices to prioritize the investments we believe are most likely to create long-term value. As a result of these changes, we expect to reduce our annualized cost base by more than $500 million by the second half of 2026, helping to establish a clearer path to net-income profitability.”

Snap Spectacles (gen 5) | Image courtesy Snap Inc

While Spiegel hasn’t confirmed the fate of Specs Inc. specifically, according to a report by Alex Heath’s Sources the company’s AR glasses subsidiary is slated to actually add employees ahead of launch of its sixth-gen Specs AR glasses, which is expected sometime this fall.

The report further maintains Snap was unable to secure a proposed $1 billion to fund its Specs division, although the company is still hoping to raise capital once its AR glasses release.

The next-gen Specs AR glasses are slated to be revealed “in the next couple of months, loosely modeled on Apple’s Vision Pro rollout, followed by a consumer release in the fall,” Heath writes.

The comes weeks after Irenic Capital Management, which holds economic interest of about 2.5% in Snap, put pressure on the company to either spin off or shut down Specs Inc.

According to a Reuters last month, the activist investor also called on Snap to consider cutting costs through layoffs and to buy back more discounted stock, among other moves, which at the time of this writing seems to be the course the company has taken.

This follows recent news that Specs Inc. and chip maker Qualcomm have signed a multi-year partnership for Snap’s upcoming AR glasses, with Qualcomm pledging Snapdragon chips for future iterations—seemingly signaling confidence that Snap is betting on the success of Specs.

Read the full memo from Snap CEO Evan Spiegel below, courtesy Business Insider:

Dear Team,

Today we are announcing changes that will impact approximately 1,000 team members at Snap, including 16% of our full time employees, in addition to closing more than 300 open roles. This is an incredibly difficult decision, and I am deeply sorry to the colleagues who will be leaving us. You have made important contributions to Snap, and we are committed to supporting you through this transition.

Last fall, I described Snap as facing a crucible moment, requiring a new way of working that is faster and more efficient, while pivoting towards profitable growth. Over the past several months, we have carefully reviewed the work required to best serve our community and partners, and made tough choices to prioritize the investments we believe are most likely to create long-term value. As a result of these changes, we expect to reduce our annualized cost base by more than $500 million by the second half of 2026, helping to establish a clearer path to net-income profitability.

While these changes are necessary to realize Snap’s long-term potential, we believe that rapid advancements in artificial intelligence enable our teams to reduce repetitive work, increase velocity, and better support our community, partners, and advertisers. We have already witnessed small squads leveraging AI tools to drive meaningful progress across several important initiatives, including Snapchat+, enhanced ad platform performance, and efficiency improvements in our Snap Lite infrastructure.

If you are part of our North America team, please work from home today. In the US, impacted team members will receive an email notification within the next hour, including information about next steps. For non-US locations, you will receive additional details about next steps from leadership and HR.

To our departing colleagues: thank you. Your hard work has helped shape Snap, and we are deeply grateful for your contributions. For U.S.-based team members who are leaving, we will provide four months of severance, healthcare coverage, and equity vesting, along with career transition support.

Outside the U.S., we will follow local processes and seek to provide comparable support aligned with local norms.

To everyone continuing on this journey: change of this magnitude and at this speed is never easy and it will not be seamless. Thank you for your resilience, compassion, and commitment to one another, and to the community and partners we serve. Our responsibility is to move forward with clarity, empathy, and determination as we build a faster, stronger, and more durable Snap for the long term.

Evan

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