XR Industry News

Snap today unveiled its first pair of standalone AR glasses intended for consumers, which the company says will pack in a variety of features, including AI assistance, entertainment, and productivity tools.

Snap showed off its latest pair of AR glasses today at Augmented World Expo (AWE) 2026, technically making it the sixth generation device to sport the ‘Specs’ name.

Like the fifth-gen Specs released in 2024, Specs don’t require an external compute puck or tethered connection to external devices, as the glasses pack in two Qualcomm Snapdragon processors—one dedicated to computer vision and another for running AR experiences, or “Lenses,” as the company calls them.

The AR glasses feature Snap’s proprietary liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) display tech, offering a 51-degree field-of-view (FOV) and 16 million colors. Notably, that 51-degree FOV is said to provide a 30% larger display area than fifth-gen Specs.

There’s still no word on a few other key specs however, including resolution, brightness, refresh rate, RAM/storage sizes, camera specs, wireless standards, water resistance rating, and actual mAh battery capacity. You can see a more condensed spec sheet at the bottom of the article with everything we know so far.

What we do know however is Snap is hoping users don’t just stay indoors for room-scale AR interactions, as Specs come with electrochromic lenses that can transition from clear to tinted in 10 seconds, the company says, noting its displays can deliver 7-millisecond motion-to-photon latency. Additionally, a Snap spokesperson told Road to VR Specs are “designed to work outside and inside.”

As it is, Specs are rated to deliver up to four hours of “mixed-use” battery life, with an included charging case extending total usage to around 20 hours, putting it fairly close to the “all-day” device category.

Built from Swiss TR90 polymer, Specs are also slated to come in two sizes, weighing 132 grams and 136 grams respectively, making them essentially 40% lighter than the fifth-gen version. Prescription inserts are also supported, and will include multiple nose pads for better individual fit, Snap tells Road to VR.

Snap also emphasized privacy features, including on-device processing, permission prompts for sensitive information, and an LED indicator when recording is active.

The company says developers have already created hundreds of experiences for Specs, ranging from golf guidance and educational applications to immersive historical experiences. New development tools announced today include agentic development support in Lens Studio through integrations with Claude Code, Codex, and Cursor, as well as a new Native Development Kit.

While it seems users will be able to find a good number of AR Lenses, Snap ostensibly hopes one of its biggest draws will be AI integration.

“With SPECS, AI isn’t limited to a text box. It can see what you see, understand what you’re trying to accomplish, and help in the moment,” the company says. “That means guidance can appear exactly where it’s needed, information can be connected to the objects and places around you, and developers can build experiences that respond intelligently to the real world in real time. We believe AI and augmented reality are a natural fit because both help people better understand and interact with the world around them. Of course, technology like this only works when people trust it.”

We still haven’t had a chance to experience the latest iteration of Specs, as the company is using AWE as a venue for a general announcement, and not media demos as such.

In any case, we expect to hear a lot more about Specs between now and its fall shipping window. In the meantime, customers across the US, UK, and France can now pre-order for $2,195 ($200 refundable deposit).

SPECS (sixth-gen) Specs

Field of View	51°
Color Reproduction	16 million colors
Lens Type	Electrochromic (auto-tinting)
Tint Transition	10 seconds
Processors	Dual Qualcomm Snapdragon chips
Motion-to-Photon Latency	7 ms
Battery Life	Up to 4 hours mixed use, 20 hours with case
Input	Hand tracking
Material	TR90 polymer
Sizes	47 mm and 52 mm
Weight	132 g (47 mm), 136 g (52 mm)
Prescription Support	Removable prescription inserts
Display Technology	LCoS
Connectivity Features	Bluetooth notifications
Privacy Features	On-device processing, recording indicator LED
Price	$2,195 USD
Availability	Shipping expected Fall 2026
Launch Markets	US, UK, France

Raven Resonance is showing off its upcoming smart glasses, Raven Prism, which aim to stay with users all day long thanks to a unique hot-swappable battery system.

The San Francisco-based startup is publicly demoing Raven Prism for the first time today at Augmented World Expo (AWE) starting today, which is taking place June 16th – 18th in Long Beach, California.

Planned to launch later this year, Raven Prism—or what the company calls an “ambient computer”—offers more than just a handy hot-swappable battery system, which the company says lets users replace without interrupting apps or requiring shutdowns and reboots.

The glasses are also slated to pack in a feature set rarely seen in smart glasses today. Running RavenOS, the company’s 64-bit Linux-based operating system, Raven Prism features a full-color LCoS display delivered through a single waveguide in the right eye, integrated eye tracking for hands-free interaction, and an onboard camera with visible capture light that also includes a physical privacy cover.

And privacy is a major focus for the company.

“Privacy is a foundational design principle of Raven Prism,” the company says. “Eye control data is processed locally on the device, no user data is transmitted off-device without explicit user consent and core AI capabilities are designed to run locally whenever possible. Unlike many connected wearables that rely heavily on cloud infrastructure, Raven Prism was designed to perform as much computation as possible locally, keeping user data under the user’s control and reducing dependence on remote infrastructure. Raven Resonance believes privacy should be enforced through hardware and software architecture rather than policies.”

Unlike many smart glasses that rely on a tethered smartphone, Raven Prism is a standalone device powered by an onboard quad-core 64-bit ARM processor and will be available in multiple RAM configurations. The device natively supports Linux ARM64 applications and SSH access, positioning it as a more open and dev-friendly platform than most consumer smart glasses.

It’s also set to ship with more than 25 applications, also providing low-level access to the OS, creating a flexible platform, which the company says is being targeted at creative professionals, makers, developers and enterprise users.

“For decades, the personal computer has been confined to a desk, a pocket or a bag,” Raven Resonance co-founder and CEO Thomas Suarez says. “We believe the next era is ambient computing—technology that remains available when you need it, while staying out of the way when you don’t. Raven Prism gives users a powerful, open computing platform they can access hands-free throughout the day—from Claude Code to creative applications and more. Put simply, Raven Prism is not a pair of smart glasses: it is a powerful, privacy-first eye-controlled Linux computer that happens to take the form of eyewear.”

The company plans to officially launch Raven Prism later in 2026, with additional details regarding availability, pricing, and developer programs to be announced closer to launch.

Snapchat parent Snap is nearing the long-awaited reveal of Specs, its next pair of AR glasses, as the company says we should keep our eyes peeled come June 16th.

Specs Inc, the company’s new XR subsidiary, showed off a (very) brief glimpse of the device via Instagram on Friday, which notably included “06.16” at the end.

The company additionally confirmed it’s publicly revealing the device on the June 16th at Augmented World Expo (AWE), which has become a prime venue for XR announcements over the past few years. AWE goes from June 15th – 18th, taking place in Long Beach, California.

Notably, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel is also set to deliver a keynote there, titled ‘Making Computing More Human‘, making it a fairly certain we’ll hear more about the company’s expectations for its next pair of AR glasses, set to be its sixth-gen device.

The fifth-gen Specs (seen below) were released in 2024 primarily for developers, ostensibly making its sixth-gen the first from the company specifically targeted at consumers.

And while we don’t know the specs behind Specs just yet, the company says it’s emphasizing the device’s built-in AI, something that “uses its understanding of you and your world to help get things done on your behalf while protecting and respecting your privacy.”

The reveal of Specs does come amid some turbulence though. In April, Snap laid off around 1,000 employees and closed hundreds of open roles. Layoffs haven’t largely affected Specs Inc however, which was spun up in January to allow the company to form new partnerships, have more capital flexibility, and, more importantly, insulate its AR business.

This follows Snap’s acquisiton of Illumix, a spatial mapping company and developers behind Five Nights at Freddy’s AR: Special Delivery (2019), which is said to boost the company’s AR efforts.

According to video discovered in Pico’s public SDK, it appears the company’s next flagship headset has just been leaked.

Trusted data miner and serial leaker Luna was sent what appears to be a number of tutorial videos for Project Swan, which were buried in Pico’s public SDK.

Luna, who also leaked multiple devices in the past including Meta Ray-Ban Display, additionally confirmed the videos seen below are indeed authentic.

PICO Project Swan

I was sent these by a source claiming it is in the public SDK, and I was able to independently verify that is indeed the case (you can too) pic.twitter.com/wAVa56OY1T

— Luna (@Lunayian) June 11, 2026

What it reveals: a headset very much inspired by Apple Vision Pro and Samsung Galaxy XR, as it appears to include a separate battery unit and woven headstrap à la Vision Pro, and a body similar to Galaxy XR.

Earlier this week Qualcomm seemingly teased its next-gen Snapdragon XR chipset targeted at standalone headsets, something the company says we’ll learn more about “soon.”

Notably, Pico said back in March that Project Swan will contain a co-processor that combines custom XR silicon and a separate flagship SoC with “more than 2× CPU and GPU performance vs XR2 Gen 2,” something the company says will launch globally in late 2026.

While possibly a coincidence, the timing does raise an eyebrow at whether Pico will be the first to include Qualcomm’s next-gen Snapdragon XR chip.

That said, we’re still waiting to hear a lot more about Project Swan, including its pricing, official naming scheme and (not to mention) full spec sheet.

So far, Pico has revealed it will weight in at 270g (presumably just the headset and not battery) and include microOLED panels with 4,000 pixels per inch (PPI). The headset’s optics are also said to provide an average ~40 pixels per degree (PPD) and a center sweet spot exceeding 45 PPD.

Meta announced that it is rolling out updated kiosks inside of Best Buy, the biggest electronics retailer in the US. The new 900 square-foot “store in a store” offers a place for customers to demo Meta’s AI glasses and VR headsets.

The News

Meta has a long-running relationship with Best Buy and is no stranger to placing in-store kiosks with trained staff in stores to give customers the opportunity to go hands-on with its hardware. However, the company’s most recent kiosks have focused primarily on its AI glasses, creating an apparent divide between older, separately placed kiosks focused on Quest headsets.

Now the company says it’s rolling out a more unified experience, called “Meta Lab @ Best Buy,” an expanded kiosk that includes AI glasses and VR headsets in the same space, both of which are available for a hands-on experience.

The company says the Meta Lab spaces are “designed for hands-on discovery, where people can explore Meta’s expansive lineup of AI glasses and VR headsets through interactive demos, smart mirrors, personalized fittings and more—all with support from dedicated Meta Sales Specialists.”

Meta plans to roll out 50 such spaces in Best Buy locations across the US and Canada, and notes that the following locations will be the first to open this Summer:

• San Carlos, CA
• Roseville, MN
• Woodland Park, NJ
• Greenville, SC
• Columbus, OH

The new Meta Lab @ Best Buy spaces appear to be a natural outgrowth of the company’s Meta Lab pop-up locations that rolled out in late 2025 to give the company a temporary boost to its retail presence in support of the Ray-Ban Display launch. These spaces also included Quest headsets and demos. Some of the Meta Lab pop-up locations have become permanent retail locations.

My Take

The move comes after Meta’s aggressive shift in focus away from its VR business and toward its AI glasses business, which has left many unsure of Meta’s long-term commitment to VR.

Meta launched Ray-Ban Display—its first AI glasses with a display—in late 2025. At the time the company launched new Best Buy kiosks which were exclusively focused on its AI glasses, and didn’t even include Meta’s VR headsets for sale. Meta was seemingly rushing these kiosks out the door because the company opted not to sell Ray-Ban Display to anyone without an in-person fitting. The need to deploy the kiosks in time for the launch of Ray-Ban Display is probably why we didn’t see the initial kiosks include Quest headsets at the outset. And, indeed, this is likely because of the rather abrupt shift in Meta’s focus toward its AI glasses.

With the new Meta Lab @ Best Buy spaces, the company’s retail strategy is catching up to its product strategy. While we probably can’t infer too much about what this means for Meta’s long-term commitment to VR, it at least tells us that the company wants to make sure all of its hardware can be seen together in one retail space.

In any case, seeing more spaces that offer hands-on demos of VR headsets is a good thing. The VR experience remains almost impossible to describe to someone who has never used a modern headset; actually trying on a VR headset is a reliably mind-blowing experience for first-time users. But it’s difficult to give people that opportunity at scale.

Lightstorm Vision, James Cameron’s 3D production studio, has acquired STEREOTEC, a 3D camera maker that’s powered a number of films and multi-camera immersive concerts.

Details of the deal are still under wraps, however Lightstorm Vision says the acquisition will help integrate Stereotec’s technology directly into its 3D production pipeline, enabling capture, processing, and delivery of 3D video.

“By capturing consistent ‘ground truth’ depth data at the source, the technology unlocks downstream automation, AI processing, and the scalable 3D workflows that Lightstorm Vision is bringing to cinematic, broadcast, and immersive platforms,” the companies say in a press statement.

Stereotec is most recently known for providing the camera tech behind 3D concert ‘Billie Eilish – Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour’, which Lightstorm says was one the “largest and most complex live 3D capture deployments ever executed,” having included more than 17 stereo camera systems (34 cameras) across fiber and RF into a unified pipeline under live tour conditions.

That sort of tight integration allowed editorial teams to begin cutting synchronized 3D multi-cam footage while the performance was still underway, the studio says, something aimed at reducing reliance on post-production reconstruction and lengthy editing times.

“Capturing accurate depth at the source produces results no downstream process can recover after the fact—and provides the foundation for the scalable, production-ready 3D workflows Lightstorm Vision is establishing as the new standard across cinematic, broadcast, and immersive platforms,” the studio says.

Established in 2024 as Lightstorm Entertainment’s dedicated 3D studio, Lightstorm Vision’s stereoscopic tech has supported over 27 feature films, 9 concert films, and 140 sports broadcasts worldwide, generating in excess of $8 billion in global box office. It also most recently struck a multi-year deal with Meta to produce spatial content across multiple genres, including live events and full-length entertainment.

Founded near Munich by stereographer and engineer Dr. Florian Maier in 1997, Stereotec produces precision-engineered 3D rigs, having supported feature films including Ang Lee’s Gemini Man (2019) and Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk (2016), Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two (2024), as well as immersive titles for Quest and Apple Vision Pro. To date, the company holds twelve Lumiere Awards from the Advanced Imaging Society for excellence in stereoscopic 3D production.

According to an internal memo viewed by The Information, Meta is aiming to release up to four more smart glasses models this year. Meanwhile, the company is reportedly developing an AI pendant, with testing slated to start next year.

The memo, which thus far hasn’t been confirmed by Meta, was reportedly authored by Meta Wearable VP Alex Himel. In it, Himel details on some of the projects currently in the works at the company’s Reality Labs XR hardware division.

Amid expectations to sell 10 million wearables in the second half of 2026, Himel reportedly revealed the company is developing an AI-powered pendant set to go into testing next year, which is described similar to tech from Limitless, a startup Meta acquired in 2025 that built devices for recording, transcribing, and summarizing conversations.

As per The Information’s report, the company also hopes to expand its AI glasses lineup beyond its current Ray-Ban Oakley models, which is said to include more brands, styles, and variants. Notably, Meta signed an agreement in 2024 with smart glasses partner EssilorLuxottica to extend their partnership to 2030.

Specifics are still under wraps, however the report maintains that Meta will debut at least four new pairs of smart glasses: ‘Modelo’ as soon as June, and ‘Luna’ and ‘RBM2 Refresh’ sometime this Fall, the latter of which suggesting a new Ray-Ban hardware refresh. In December, the company is also expected to release ‘Mojito VIP’. Meta is also reportedly testing models codenamed ‘Artemis’ and ‘SSG’ (“supersensing” glasses).

Like previous Ray-Ban and Oakley Meta glasses, the upcoming units are slated to include Meta’s AI models, however Himel’s memo also mentions bringing an AI agent called ‘Hatch’ to the company’s glasses.

Meanwhile, Meta is additionally aiming to launch a business-focused subscription called ‘Wearables for Work’, which could better position the company to generate recurring revenue instead of relying on one-off device purchases.

This follows a monumental shift in priorities at Reality Labs, which pivoted earlier this year to focus on AI and smart glasses while markedly de-emphasizing its previous VR and metaverse efforts.

While Meta ostensibly hopes to sell 10 million wearables in the second half of 2026, it could exceed that figure if demand is strong. According to a Bloomberg report earlier this year, Meta and EssilorLuxottica have doubled the expected smart glasses production target, which would increase annual capacity to 20 million units by the end of 2026, with additional capacity capable of scaling to 30 million units.