Snap and Qualcomm announce multi-year chip supply deal for upcoming AR glasses.
Snap's consumer AR glasses are confirmed for a 2024 launch.
This marks the first time Snap's AR glasses will be available to the general public.
The partnership leverages Qualcomm's Snapdragon XR platform for advanced performance.
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Social media and technology company Snap Inc. has announced a multi-year strategic partnership with semiconductor giant Qualcomm to power its upcoming consumer augmented reality glasses with Snapdragon XR chips, confirming the product remains on track for a 2024 launch. This collaboration, formalized through a joint announcement, represents a significant commitment by Snap to bring its long-in-development AR hardware to the general public for the first time, leveraging Qualcomm's established expertise in extended reality platforms to ensure robust performance and advanced features.
Snap's journey into wearable hardware began nearly a decade ago with the launch of its camera-equipped Spectacles in 2016. While subsequent generations evolved into full-fledged AR glasses capable of overlaying digital content onto the physical world, these have remained limited to developers and creators. The forthcoming consumer model marks a pivotal strategic shift, aiming to translate Snap's popular AR Lenses from smartphone screens into a persistent, hands-free wearable experience. The partnership with Qualcomm, whose chips have previously been used in Snap's developer-focused AR hardware, provides the necessary technological foundation for this ambitious consumer push.
The announcement solidifies a key supply chain relationship for Snap as it prepares to enter the competitive consumer AR market, which is also being pursued by tech heavyweights like Apple and Meta. By locking in a multi-year agreement with Qualcomm, Snap secures access to specialized XR silicon designed for spatial computing, which is critical for managing the complex tasks of environment mapping, object recognition, and rendering digital overlays in real time. This move signals Snap's belief that dedicated, high-performance hardware is essential for delivering compelling AR experiences beyond the current limitations of smartphone-based filters.
Qualcomm Incorporated () is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Diego, California, and incorporated in Delaware. It creates semiconductors, software and services related to wireless technology. It owns patents critical to the 5G, 4G, CDMA2000, TD-SCDMA and WCDMA mobile communi...
Glasses, also known as eyeglasses, spectacles, or colloquially as specs, are vision eyewear with clear or tinted lenses mounted in a frame that holds them in front of a person's eyes, typically utilizing a bridge over the nose and hinged arms, known as temples or temple pieces, that rest over the ea...
Snap's upcoming consumer AR glasses are still set to launch sometime this year, and they'll be powered by a Snapdragon XR chip from Qualcomm, according to an announcement of a "multi-year strategic agreement" between the companies.
Snap has been working on smart glasses for a decade, with the first model of its camera-equipped Spectacles glasses launching in 2016 . But the past couple generations , which have been AR glasses capable of layering digital experiences over the real world, haven't been available to general consumers. The consumer Specs won't be the first time Qualcomm and Snap have worked together, as Snapdragon chips have powered …
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