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Back to What comes after smartphones, with Snap CEO Evan Spiegel, with Evan Spiegel.

What Are Snap Spectacles Actually for?

Evan Spiegel says Snap Spectacles matter most for experiences that did not exist before. Snap is investing most of its time there, and the excitement is not replacing the television on the wall.

He estimates a lot of the large-screen use cases move first. Specs can carry a huge television almost anywhere, which undercuts paying thousands of dollars for two or three televisions at home when lightweight glasses can show any size screen. The same shift applies to a desktop display or a laptop, and it is valuable when traveling. Screen-based use cases are probably the clearest example of what moves. The desktop is still the best for word processing, and still the best for information retrieval and getting things done. The phone is amazing for mobile communication. Glasses are extraordinary for shared play: laser tag with his kids outside, dinosaurs in the backyard, and building Lego together.

Young people want experiences, want to do things together, and want to see the world in a new way, and glasses provide it. Play in the glasses shows that computers can bring folks together in the real world rather than leave everyone staring down at a little screen.

Grokipedia·Evan Spiegel·Lego

Transcript

What comes after smartphones, with Snap CEO Evan Spiegel ·

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More from this episode

  1. Will Glasses Replace the Smartphone?Evan Spiegel says glasses will not replace the smartphone. He does not think computing is moving beyond the phone.
  2. How Much New Snap Code Does AI Write?Evan Spiegel says more than two-thirds of new code at Snap is written by AI.
  3. Why Won't Snap Build Camera Glasses?Evan Spiegel says Snap will not invest in camera glasses because they are not 10 times better than the phone, and a new idea that misses the bar is not worth…
  4. How Many Selfies Does Snapchat Capture in a Year?Evan Spiegel says Snapchat captured well over a trillion selfies in a year.
  5. Why Did Snapchat Separate Social From Media?Evan Spiegel says Snapchat had to separate social from media because combining them was the biggest mistake, and the mix creates perverse incentives.
  6. Why Are Blanket Teen Phone Rules a Mistake?Evan Spiegel says the real danger in rules for kids, teens, phones, and social media is a blanket policy, because everybody is different.
  7. What Do Studies Say About Snapchat and Wellbeing?Evan Spiegel says independent studies his company did not fund or join show Snapchat has a positive impact on people's wellbeing and relationships, while…
  8. How Can Snap Build an App With Half a Person?Evan Spiegel says Snap can build a totally new service with half a team member's time and distribute it through Snapchat.
  9. Why Did Snapchat Try to Kill Streaks?Evan Spiegel did not like the idea of Snapchat streaks, did not want to do it, and fought very hard over the years to kill streaks.

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