Snapchat introduces video glasses, new name

LOS ANGELES — Communications app Snapchat has a new name, Snap Inc., and is getting into the hardware business.

Early Saturday, Snapchat, one of the most popular smartphone apps, reaching 100 million visitors daily, announced its first physical product, available later this year:

Spectacles are $129.99 glasses that can record up to 10 seconds of video, similar to Google Glass.

Glass was the ill-fated attempt by the Google to get people wearing $1,500 computerized glasses in 2013 that could surf the Web and record images. Instead, the Glass project got poor reviews and poor response from neighbors, and was shelved by Google.

In a news release, Snapchat described Spectacles as "the best way to make memories ... hands-free, with the simple tap of a button." It put up a bare-bones website to announce the product, Spectacles.com, and says the video glasses will be "landing soon." It hasn't supplied ordering information.

Snapchat is dipping its toe beyond the app store, saying it will have just a "limited" number of Spectacles available for purchase. Coupled with the low price, that's certain to make Spectacles a tough-to-get item for the holidays.

Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel told The Wall Street Journal that taking photos from the vantage point of your eyes made more sense than holding up a smartphone, which is "like a wall in front of your face."

The new name Snap Inc. represents how the Venice Beach, Calif., company is diversifying into other products.

The video on the glasses will be captured in a new circular video format, which can be played full-screen on smartphones in the Snapchat app within the Memories section, where users are directed to save their favorite images and Stories, which are collections of videos and photos. They'll also be saved to the device.

(This is similar to how 360 video looks before it is processed — as two big circular balls of video. The new glasses aren't expected to have as wide a view as 360 video.)

Snapchat has been the leading proponent of vertical video--smartphone clips produced by holding the phone in the vertical, instead of horizontal position, saying users feel more natural looking at their phones that way. Production companies that make videos shown on Snapchat's Discover channel are told to produce them vertically.

Now comes another and this time presumably proprietary format, circular video.

Taylor Nikolai, a heavy Snapchat user who often gives lectures to businesses about how to be more visible on the platform, looks to circular video as the next wave, in light of the new Spectacles video format.

"When you wear the glasses, you're actually able to see an entire vision from the point of view of the camera ... the content will change because the platform has changed."

Snapchat storytellers, who have used the tools to add text, drawings and photos into highly viewed "Stories," will have to learn new skills, he adds.