Snap announced an upgraded version of its Spectacles augmented-reality glasses on Tuesday, doubling down on its bet that wearable devices to enhance the view of the real world will be one of the next frontiers in tech.

Tech giants including Meta, Snap, Google and others are racing to build smart glasses. It could change our lives for the better or worse.

Snap Inc. Chief Executive Officer Evan Spiegel unveiled a new version of the company’s Spectacles smart glasses, revitalizing an effort to build an advanced augmented reality product that may one day replace or rival the smartphone.

These new AR glasses are amazing. And extremely goofy. Before I get to Snap’s new Spectacles, a confession: I have a long history of putting goofy new things on my face and liking it. Back in 2011, I tried on Sony’s head-mounted 3D glasses and,

Snap’s latest augmented reality glasses have a completely new — but still very oversized — design, larger field of view and all-new software that supports full hand tracking abilities.

Snap on Tuesday, September 17, introduced its fifth-generation augmented reality glasses, Spectacles, designed to overlay digital graphics onto the real world. These glasses are currently only accessible to developers who are willing to pay a monthly subscription fee of $99 for a year.

Sticking their goal of tech-augmented eyesight, the makers of the popular photo app Snapchat have launched their latest pair of glasses that can superimpose digital objects into real environments. The new generation of "Spectacles" with transparent lenses offers better display quality and faster response times.