Snap has been building augmented reality glasses for a decade. In January 2026 it moved the effort into a subsidiary, Specs Inc., and on 16 September it opened orders for Specs, its first glasses for consumers. They cost 2,195 dollars, or 2,395 dollars with a connected charging case, and ship later this autumn to the US, the UK and France. They are not available in the UAE or Saudi Arabia.
What Specs are
- See-through glasses that place digital objects in the world around you, running Snap OS.
- An AI assistant Snap calls SPECS Intelligence, and translation across 60 languages.
- A 51 degree field of view, and about four hours of battery, or about 20 with the case, according to trade reports from Snap's June developer event.
- Optional data plans, and business partners including Salesforce, AWS and NVIDIA.
Evan Spiegel, Snap's chief executive, told investors in August that mass adoption may not come until the end of the decade. For brands, Specs are a signal of where Snap is heading, not a channel yet.
What Snap built for developers
At the Augmented World Expo in June, Snap released tools for Specs developers: an agentic version of Lens Studio that works with AI coding assistants, a Unity migration agent, and Commerce Kit for purchases inside a Lens. Snap says it has shipped ten Snap OS updates in 18 months. Commerce Kit is the one to watch: it points to products bought from inside an AR experience.
Lenses today: the part that matters now
While Specs wait, Snapchat's Lenses on the phone are one of the largest AR audiences anywhere. From Snap's 2026 investor letters:
- More than 75 percent of Snapchatters use AR every day.
- Lenses are used 9 billion times a day.
- More than 400,000 Lenses were submitted in the first quarter of 2026, up more than 150 percent, helped by Easy Lens, which builds a Lens from a text prompt.
- 700 million Snapchatters used generative AI Lenses 17 billion times in the last quarter of 2025.
Sponsored AI Lenses
Sponsored AI Lenses, which let a brand offer a generative AI effect in the Lens carousel, launched in April 2025, and Snap says they have delivered nearly 38 billion impressions since the last quarter of 2025. In February 2026 Gucci ran the first from a luxury house, in France, the UK, the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Sponsored Lenses and AI Lenses are available to Gulf brands now, and Saudi Arabia has a long record of AR campaigns, from Snap's Ramadan Mall to Almarai's AR neighbourhood in Ramadan 2026.
Lens creators in the Gulf
Lens+, Snap's subscription for exclusive Lenses, launched in 2025 at 8.99 dollars a month, and pays Lens creators through Lens+ Payouts, which are open to creators in Saudi Arabia and the UAE. In March 2026 Snap added AI Clips, which turn a photo into a five-second video, exclusive to Lens+. For agencies, it means the region's Lens creators have more reason to build, and there is more talent to hire.
What to do with it
- Budget for sponsored Lenses and AI Lenses on phones now; they reach Gulf audiences at scale.
- Brief AR creators who already build for Snapchat, rather than designing for glasses.
- Watch Commerce Kit. Purchases inside a Lens could make AR a sales channel, not only awareness.
- Revisit Specs when Snap announces availability in the Gulf.
The ad mockup generator on this site shows Snap Ads full screen with Snap's safe zone, to check how an AR launch campaign's ads look before they run.
