I was one of the first to try Snap Spectacles in the UK - they bring the fun to AR

The future of entertainment isn't on a TV screen or your phone, but on your face. That is what the biggest technology companies in the world are hoping.

HTC has been pushing this for years with its Vive headsets, Apple has followed suit with its premium Apple Vision Pro device. And then there's Meta / Facebook: its takeover of Oculus has seen it release a number of Quest headsets and team up with Ray-Bans for its push into AR.

But there's another company who has been working away for years in this area. It's Snap, the creators of Snapchat, and it's been doing things a little differently. It released its first version of Snap Spectacles back in 2016, to much fanfare. These colourful glasses didn't offer AR (augmented reality) but allowed users to stream to Snapchat. The pop-up booths you could buy them from were something of a viral hit.

Since then Snap Spectacles have gone through a number of iterations - and boy is Snap having fun with them. The latest version of Spectacles are still in the development phase, but Snap has been taking its time both refining the hardware and making sure that the applications it has on board are perfect for Snapchat users. And for good reason: it is going all-in on AR with these glasses.

Most of this development has been in the US but, as Shortlist found out when it visited Snap's headquarters in the UK, the crème de la crème of Europe's app developers now have their hands on the latest iteration of Snap Spectacles, and what is being developed is quite special.

Here are a few things to know about Snap Spectacles - as one of the first people to try these things in Blighty...

They are comfortable

Snap Spectacles are currently a dev build which means they are a little on the chunky side but they are really comfortable. If and when they are sold to the general public, the look of these things is sure to change but I like the thick-framed look of them. Think Michael Caine in his Ipcress Files era.

They are chunky for a reason: Snap is offering up a helluva lot of tech within the frame. The AR on display (literally) here, is something we've usually seen when a product is tethered to a phone (or in a proper-sized headset), so it's impressive to offer this tech in this build quality.

When it comes to the specs in the specs, essentially there's a suite of cameras and sensors that power multi-modal AI, offer up contextual understanding and 6DoF (6 degrees of freedom) tracking on board. Add to this dual system-on-a-chip architecture, vapour chambers and a stereo waveguide display that offers a 46° field of view. It's a lot of tech in not much space.

They are incredibly easy to use

Put the glasses on and the first things you are presented with is a menu that hangs mid air in front of you. The glasses handle hand tracking really well (no eye tracking as of yet), so I was able to tap away at myriad menus to get into the fun games and features that are on offer.

There is a mix of tapping virtual screens in front of you, as well as using your palm as a pseudo controller. Here virtual buttons are projected and you can click away to get to where you want to with ease.

I thought there would be a steep learning curve with the UI, but it was incredibly simple to use - much like you prod and swipe at the screen on your phone, here it's the same but just in mid air.

The AR is fantastic

I tried a number of games and apps through Snap Spectacles and had a lot of fun interactions. Bricktacular was a standout - this game by Lego allows you to build with Lego bricks on whichever surface you are near. It was a real joy to pick up the virtual bricks with my hand, interact with them and slot them together as you would the real things. It's a little trickier to get them to connected but I soon got a handle of things.

Another AR masterclass was from Niantic, the creators of Pokemon Go. It has created its own AR pet simulation game called Peridot Beyond. Here I was able to interact with a virtual pet (called Dots) and have it follow me around and be by my side.

Another fun application was a finger paint game, where you can use different parts of the room around you to paint things on. The best bit about some of these games, though, was that they were multiplayer.

You can interact with others

The real USP for Snap Spectacles is the ability to sync with another person using the device and share in AR experiences. In my demo, two of us played with a pet in Peridot Beyond and we both showed off our finger paint artwork to each other.

While virtual reality headsets always leave me with a feeling of being isolated, Snap's AR glasses really felt like I was still in the real world, while experiencing otherworldly things.

The Snap Spectacles developer programme is currently available in the US - here's hoping it'll open up in the UK soon, as there's a tonne of potential in these glasses, just waiting to be unlocked by both devs and users alike.

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