Spectacles are the first hardware product from the enterprise formally referred to as Snapchat. The camera-ready glasses had been announced in September 2016, at the same time as Snapchat became Snap inc. And rebranded itself as “a camera organization.”
From the moment they had been introduced, Snap had the advertising enterprise, and importantly, their key 16-24-year-antique demographic, clamoring to get their fingers on spectacles.
However, in what turned out to be one of the maximum creative advertising campaigns of 2016, spectacles are extremely difficult to get and the demand.
Spectacles are only to bought thru snapbots – yellow merchandising machines dropped in random places. The first snapbot dropped in Venice seashore, not too distant from Snap’s Los Angles HQ, and the demand became immediate.
Everyone waited in line for hours with the desire they might scoop up some of the $130 glasses and with call for so high, spectacles had been reselling for much better prices on ebay.
The Venice seaside Snapbot was followed up by releases in Big Sur and a far off area close to the Grand Canyon – leaving spectacle-searchers on a hunt to locate their nearest opportunity.
Then, it happened!
Snap dropped a special holiday pop-up spectacles save within the coronary heart of Manhattan. Being a remote crew, we fortunately had buffer teammate and New yorker, Julian, inside the neighborhood to prevent through and snag a couple for our experimentation.
I had the privilege of taking the snap spectacles for a experience during the last weekend and that i ought to say, i’m hooked.
I’m excited to interrupt down the whole thing there’s to understand approximately this nifty device and even share some tips on how to take better snaps with Snapchat Spectacles.
How they work:
The packaging
Arriving in a clear tube with a bright yellow field inside, spectacles had me intrigued from the begin. The process from beginning to filming my first snap turned into excellent clean and simple.
The spectacles package comes with a yellow carrying case (which additionally acts as the charger), a usb-powered charging wire, a small instructions publication, and the spectacles.
The technology
The spectacles digital camera itself is one of the maximum fantastic components of this device. Its capabilities are a 115-degree cam lens intended to extra closely approximate how human beings see.
This super era lets in users to absolutely rotate their telephone even as looking the video and it stays flawlessly “in-frame.”
Setting up the Spectacles
Setup was a breeze. To pair the spectacles with snapchat thru bluetooth, all i had to do became put on the glasses, open the snapchat app, appearance directly at my smartphone with the glasses on, and then hit the spectacles report button.
The glasses had been paired with my snapchat account in much less than a minute and i was snapping in no time.
Taking a Snap
It takes only a short tap of the button on the top left corner of the spectacles to begin snapping. They automatically report in 10 second increments, however you can expand the recording up to 20 or 30 seconds through tapping the identical button twice or three times.
You can also stop the recording via holding down the button earlier than the 10 seconds is up.
Your pals will recognise the spectacles are recording with a small, round led light around the left digital camera lens that spins after urgent the document button.
You’ll know the spectacles are recording with a inward-facing light at the left-hand side of the glasses.
Battery life
Checking the battery life of your spectacles is straight forward and pretty fun! You do this by using double-tapping the side of the spectacles, simply beneath the recording button. The circle will light up, indicating how much battery is left.
Battery timing in all fairness suitable as properly. I used to be able to get about one hundred 10-Sec videos out of a single charge, which for me, is lots of snaps in one cross. And as soon as i ran out i was capable of quickly plug the spectacles case into the closest usb port and that they charged up in about an hour or so.
The best drawback is that they’re a battery hog on your iphone whilst uploading snaps to the snapchat app. If you plan on being out all day, i’d recommend bringing the spectacles case along with you further to a portable cellphone charger.
Syncing videos with your phone
Snap spectacles work with both android and ios devices. In case you own an android, you can transfer the snaps thru wifi, however in case you’re on ios, they’ll switch by each bluetooth and wifi.
One of the coolest functions is that the spectacles act as a standalone tool. They will take snaps and shop them till you have access in your cellphone and can add them.
Sharing with your friends
One in all the most important snapchat marketing opportunities is the reality that you are able to share the spectacles with pals and even likely influencers.
Snapchat recommends that before sharing your spectacles with someone else, you first import all the snaps from your glasses onto your smartphone. When you hand them over for your buddies (or influencers) they are able to without problems pair the spectacles with their tool and snap away.
That’s a wrap!
Overall, i can’t wait to apply the snapchat spectacles to capture all the little life moments that we often don’t suppose twice about. One useful feature in Snapchat that you may not be aware of is a quick menu in Memories.
Simply press and hold on a snap, and a menu will appear that lets you share, edit, show tumbnails, export, make private (My Eyes Only), or delete. The thumbnails view is handy for seeing all your snaps in one place, so you can easily edit or highlight only the ones you want.
If you export a snap that had been shot with Spectacles, either to your camera roll or Facebook, what you’ll get is a video in a circle. This is what the Spectacles see, versus a video that had been recorded with a phone’s camera.
