# Snap sees utility and AI as the keys to AR glasses

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/s/snap-sees-utility-and-ai-as-the-keys-to-ar-glasses/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

- Speaker: [Evan Spiegel](https://realalpha.app/people/evan-spiegel/) · Co-founder & CEO, Snap Inc. · Co-founded Snapchat at Stanford and has led Snap as CEO since 2011, building Stories and the Specs AR glasses.
- Host: [Joubin Mirzadegan](https://realalpha.app/people/joubin-mirzadegan/) · Partner, Kleiner Perkins · Took Palo Alto Networks' cloud business from $2M to $50M+ ARR in a year.
- Show: Grit
- Episode: [How Snap Plans to Win the AR Race | Evan Spiegel on Spectacles](https://realalpha.app/v/Xkc5XOpbAq8/), Dec 15, 2025
- Moment: 2:14 to 5:32 of the episode (3 min), playing on https://realalpha.app/s/snap-sees-utility-and-ai-as-the-keys-to-ar-glasses/; the episode from there: https://realalpha.app/v/Xkc5XOpbAq8/?t=134

## Quote

> “we put a camera on a pair of glasses, but **the value just wasn't there**, right?”
> — [Evan Spiegel](https://realalpha.app/people/evan-spiegel/) at [3:45](https://realalpha.app/v/Xkc5XOpbAq8/?t=225) · Grit

## Takeaways

1. Snap has focused on lightweight, see-through glasses for 11 years.
2. Camera glasses fell short because phones took better pictures.
3. AI could shift computing from active operation to oversight.

## About this segment

Evan Spiegel says Snap chose lightweight, see-through glasses over VR because people won’t wear bulky, antisocial headsets all day. Early camera glasses failed to beat phones on utility; AI and shared computing could change the equation.

From “How Snap Plans to Win the AR Race | Evan Spiegel on Spectacles”, Dec 15, 2025. [Watch the full episode](https://realalpha.app/v/Xkc5XOpbAq8/)

## Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

[2:21](https://realalpha.app/v/Xkc5XOpbAq8/?t=141) How do you know? Like, how do you know when the moment is to strike? I mean, it helps that we have been singularly focused on this form factor for 11 years, right? So I think if you look at Google or you look at Meta, a lot of people spend a lot of time focused on VR for the last decade, which is, in our view, a road to nowhere because people just don't want to wear this chunky headset all day long to access their computer.

[2:39](https://realalpha.app/v/Xkc5XOpbAq8/?t=159) It's antisocial. To say the least. I was pretty impressed when... It makes you sick, so. I saw you talking to the kids in Pincus's class at Stanford about, well, everybody else is doing viral. We're going to do social. Yeah. I think everyone over-rotated on VR, learned that that was not a good thing. And now just in the last couple of years of trying to pivot back to glasses. But over the last 11 years, we just compounded all of our learning. Because the form factor that you chose was a lightweight set of glasses that just look like sunglasses.

[3:10](https://realalpha.app/v/Xkc5XOpbAq8/?t=190) Yeah. That ultimately, we believe if you want to embed computing in the world, people need to be able to see the world through a see-through pair of glasses. When I was a kid, I thought wearing glasses sucked. And then at some point it became my new normal at age 43. But, you know, I own so many different specialized pair of glasses. So what you want is if you go to the trouble of putting them on, the world has to become better. So you have to you have to see some digital artifact. You have to see some information. You have to see something. So it has to be immediately better.

[3:42](https://realalpha.app/v/Xkc5XOpbAq8/?t=222) And I think what you just said totally resonates with our experience, which is you have to focus on the functionality and the utility. I think a lot of people, even including us in the early days, right, we put a camera on a pair of glasses, but the value just wasn't there, right? It's not 10 times better than just taking a picture with your phone. And so I think we learned a lot about. that, and I agree with you, that the value has to be there. For the first time in human history, computing will be shared instead of single player. Like today, every time we use a computer, we're using it alone. Every time we use our phone, we're using it alone. And I think the promise of glasses that we can all look at the same thing, interact with the same thing, build the same thing together, just like we collaborate, you know, in front of a whiteboard or something

[4:20](https://realalpha.app/v/Xkc5XOpbAq8/?t=260) like that. And that's a big deal for computing. We just follow up on that for a second. This idea of the form factor being the glasses, like maybe it was never about the glasses, but the delivery mechanism for how you can get maybe a localized model to be able to do more interesting things to Bing's point of like, what are you projecting out of the glasses? We've been trying for 15 plus years to get these glasses to work. Was it maybe, I don't know, I don't want to like overpaint AI as the panacea to everything, but in some way, like, wasn't that a pretty key unlock for you to think about ways that you can use this form factor that are like super interesting?

[4:54](https://realalpha.app/v/Xkc5XOpbAq8/?t=294) I think it will add a lot of value because the way that people are using their computer has changing. So I think that's probably the biggest role that AI will play in accelerating glasses that instead of needing to sit and operate your computer all day long, AI is going to operate your computer for you. And you're going to, you know, observe AI, monitor AI, make sure it's on the right track. But generally, you're not going to need to spend your life operating the computer in the same way. So I think that accelerates glasses and shifts more of that time from like workstation time to being able to get out there, walk around the world, do what you love to do.

[5:24](https://realalpha.app/v/Xkc5XOpbAq8/?t=324) And of course, bring AI with you, bring your workstation with you, but not in the same