The CEO of Snap Inc, the corporate behind Snapchat and the Spectacles AR glasses, will take the stage at AWE 2025 in June to spotlight the corporate’s newest developments in AR. The outstanding placement on the occasion’s schedule comes as Snap goals to strengthen its foothold within the XR trade.
Snap could also be one of many solely firms providing absolutely standalone AR glasses you can get at present, however the firm continues to be seen as an outsider among the many broader XR group.
That’s partly as a result of Snap is approaching its AR ambitions from a special angle than different main gamers within the area.
Standalone headsets like Quest be a part of the likes of PC VR & PSVR 2 as primarily gaming-focused gadgets. Then there’s Apple’s Imaginative and prescient Professional which focuses on leisure and productiveness.
In the meantime, Snap’s Spectacles are born out of the corporate’s social-centric strategy to AR, which emphasizes each location-based and co-located experiences (which means experiences that are tied to real-world places and people which contain a number of customers in the identical bodily area).
This June, Snap CEO and co-founder Evan Spiegel will take to the principle stage at AWE 2025—one of many largest and longest-running XR-focused conferences on the planet—in an effort to share the corporate’s imaginative and prescient for AR and to strengthen bridges into the present XR trade.
The occasion is being held in Lengthy Seaside, California from June tenth to twelfth, and it’s anticipated to host greater than 6,000 attendees, 300 exhibitors, 400 audio system, and a 150,000 sqft expo flooring. Early-bird tickets are nonetheless obtainable, and Highway to VR readers can get an unique 20% low cost.
Spiegel’s keynote will probably be flanked by shows from Qualcomm and XREAL, friends that are effectively established within the convention and the trade at massive.
Sarcastically, Snap’s dedication to constructing an AR platform from the bottom up is one purpose why it has remained one thing of an outsider within the XR area.
The corporate isn’t simply constructing its personal AR glasses, it’s additionally constructing Snap OS, a bespoke working system for Spectacles. And it has its personal authoring software—Lens Studio—which builders must study to construct for the headset, somewhat than utilizing off-the-shelf instruments like Unity. The distinctive strategy and gadget capabilities imply that porting present XR content material isn’t easy.
But its dedication to constructing its platform from the bottom up exhibits the corporate’s genuine perception within the XR area.
Talking just lately to Highway to VR, Snap’s VP of {Hardware}, Scott Myers, stated that the corporate is constructing Spectacles to be extra than simply an extension of Snapchat. The corporate believes glasses like Spectacles will someday substitute smartphones altogether. This perception is guiding the standalone nature of Spectacles, which is designed to work with no telephone or tethered compute unit.
“We would like folks to lookup [through their glasses], not down [at their smartphone,” Myers said.
Beyond its emphasis on social and location-based AR experiences, Myers said the company is uniquely focused on making its platform the best in the world for developers, by building great tools and iterating aggressively on feedback.
Myers said he personally uses Spectacles “nearly every day” to test new features and experiences. “We’re learning together with developers to make developing [as easy as possible],” he stated.
Snap might want to play its playing cards proper to place itself for achievement within the coming years, as tech giants Meta, Apple, and Google are all vying to be the primary to construct a pair of mainstream AR glasses.
Highway to VR is proud to be the Premier Media Associate of AWE USA 2025, permitting us to supply readers an unique 20% low cost on tickets to the occasion.
