Snap is launching a new Specs AI tool, and it’s coming to iOS and Mac
Snap is launching a new Specs AI tool, and it’s coming to iOS and Mac. TechAINewsSnap is launching a new Specs AI tool, and it’s coming to iOS and MacSnap’s ‘Specs Intelligence’ is an ‘anticipatory AI service’ available for iOS in preview on Wednesday.
What happened
Here’s how Specs Intelligence works, according to Snap:SPECS Intelligence builds an understanding of your goals, priorities, relationships, and routines from the apps and tools you choose to connect. Snap is introducing "Specs Intelligence," a new AI assistant that can connect other digital accounts to help you with things like work tasks and keeping track of travel information. It seems similar to AI assistants like Meta's Muse and Gemini's Spark, though Snap is pitching Specs Intelligence as an "anticipatory AI service" that "helps you […]
Snap’s ‘Specs Intelligence’ is an ‘anticipatory AI service’ available for iOS in preview on Wednesday. by Jay PetersSep 16, 2026, 11:40 PM UTCImage: SnapJay Peters is a senior reporter covering technology, gaming, and more. It seems similar to AI assistants like Meta’s Muse and Gemini’s Spark, though Snap is pitching Specs Intelligence as an “anticipatory AI service” that “helps you manage what needs attention today, so you can make progress toward your longer-term goals. ” Like with other AI assistants, you can also chat with it.
Specs Intelligence is being launched alongside Specs, Snap’s first consumer pair of augmented reality glasses. Snap is trying to get ahead of those concerns by saying that it can’t view or access personal content you use with Specs Intelligence and that “Personal content from connected accounts will not be used to train or fine-tune Snap’s AI models, or to serve personalized ads. ” But it’s still a tall order, especially given how we’ve found other AI assistants with broad access to data to be pretty unnerving.
Snap announced its latest Specs in June at the Augmented World Expo tech conference.
The wider picture
They are expensive and look huge and heavy to wear, uncomfortable even on Snap CEO Evan Spiegel’s ears when he wore them at the AWE reveal, something he was widely mocked for online and that left people worried about how comfortably these glasses would fit. (Spiegel later posted on X with a picture of his unburdened ear, writing, “that's just what my ear looks like. ”)Despite that, Spiegel and the company repeatedly reiterated that Snap’s goal with the glasses is to make “computing more human. ”Courtesy of SPECSHere are some things you can do with the Specs glasses:Take calls via Bluetooth;Listen to music on Spotify;Capture photos and videos;Stream video from services like YouTube and HBO Max (the glasses feature a display);Buy stuff on Shopify, where you can view 3D product models, position them in a room, then pay for them;Mark up a digital whiteboard so you can brainstorm in the park;Translate spoken languages in real time.
Snap is also pitching Specs as an enterprise product. Snap representatives have said the Specs “do not record the world to understand it,” noting that the glasses do not use facial recognition to identify people. Snap calls Specs Intelligence an “anticipatory AI,” meaning it collects data about your day-to-day life and tries to envision what you want to do. My favorite part of wearing the Specs, Snap’s new augmented reality glasses, was playing dominoes.
Now, Snap is nearly ready to launch its first pair of AR glasses for consumers, the Specs, sometime this fall. Thanks to hand-tracking tech in the Specs, you can pinch and drag to manipulate parts of the interface, such as resizing a window or moving a domino onto the game board, and Snap says you can even snap your fingers to take a picture in the Specs’ Snapchat app. With a “Hey Specs” command, I asked it to show me funny cat videos on YouTube, as suggested by a Snap rep.
What has been reported
Even though the Specs were playing audio through the onboard speakers, the Snap rep standing right next to me said they couldn’t hear anything. RelatedEvan Spiegel on why Snap is betting on SpectaclesMeta is royally screwing up its smart glasses rollout In 2024, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel told The Verge that there is an opportunity for computers to evolve to “support the ways that humans have long interacted socially by looking at each other eye to eye with much more natural interaction. ” Today, Snap has a simpler message: It says that its vision with Specs is to “make computing more human. ” But even in my controlled demos, I found that Specs were actually more computer than other hardware; the glasses are unmissable on my head, and the digital content that only I could see was getting in the way of me interacting with the other people in the room.
But even after Snap’s years of work, they still might be coming out too soon. But it’s also available on iOS today in preview, and you can get on a waitlist for the “full early-access experience” that’s coming to Mac. Snap wouldn’t say on the record how the preview differs from the full experience. SPECS Intelligence is designed to anticipate when help would be useful and surface relevant information and actions without waiting for a prompt.
For an upcoming trip, it could bring together flight, hotel, and dinner plans while flagging a work deadline that falls during the visit. If you’re using Specs Intelligence on the Specs AR glasses, Specs can pull personal content and place it “directly into view” when relevant, like when you ask for a daily briefing before work.
What happens next
According to a video, Specs Intelligence can connect to apps like Gmail and Slack. Specs Intelligence uses “a proprietary combination of open-source models hosted in the US alongside local LLMs,” according to spokesperson Cassie Bumgarner, who adds that “We regularly update the mixture of models as we continue iterating towards the best version of SPECS Intelligence. ” But the company faces real challenges in that it needs users to trust it with their information and with data from connected services.
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Skip to main contentSave this storySave this storySnap, the company behind Snapchat and a new pair of $2,195 augmented-reality smart glasses, is finally sharing more about what its glasses can actually do. Snap also has a partnership with Tripadvisor that lets you translate reviews, local phrases, and currency. Snap is partnering with the NBA and WNBA to build an interactive basketball experience that works with real-world basketball hoops and balls.
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