Snap has announced its next generation Spectacles, a new see-through, standalone pair of AR glasses. The glasses are powered by Snap OS, the company's new operating system designed to enhance how people naturally interact with the world.

Snap put its first pair of shades on back in 2016 with the first generation of its Spectacles glasses, which were capable of taking up to 10-second video snippets. The third generation of Spectacles upped the ante by adding dual high definition cameras to "capture depth and dimension the way our eyes do." It wasn't until 2021, however, that Snap made the leap to augmented reality after buying out WaveOptics for a little over $500 million. Now, the company has announced its fifth generation of Spectacles, which the company says will work seamlessly with a mobile device.

In a press release, Snap remarked, "Spectacles are the result of a decade of research and development to introduce hardware that breaks the bounds of screens and brings people together in the real world. Spectacles pack incredible technology into AR glasses that weigh less than half the weight of a typical VR headset at only 226 grams. They are equipped with four cameras that power the Snap Spatial Engine and enable seamless hand tracking."

In terms of the new Spectacles mobile app, users will be able to use their phone as a custom game controller with Lenses. Users will also be able to launch Spectator Mode, so friends without spectacles can follow along, mirror the user's phone screen, and more.

Snap designed and built the Optical Engine from the ground up, saying it leverages the company's proprietary technology to enable a see-through AR display. The Optical Engine delivers a 46 degree diagonal field of view with a 37 pixel-per-degree resolution, similar to a 100-inch display just 10-feet away. The glasses also tint automatically based on the environment's lighting.

Powering the glasses is Snap's dual system-on-a-chip architecture. It includes two Snapdragon processors from Qualcomm, with the infrastructure splitting the compute workload across the two processors. Snap says Spectacles can deliver up to 45 minutes of continuous standalone runtime.

There are a few companies who are already teaming up with Snap to bring AR content to Spectacles. One is the LEGO Group, which launched BRICKTACULAR, an interactive AR game controlled entirely by the user's hands and voice.

Anyone who would like to get their hands on a pair of the fifth generation Spectacles AR glasses will have to be willing to commit to paying $99 per month for a year. This will get them access to the Spectacles Developer Program in the US, and access to the AR glasses and software.