Snapchat releases new version of spectacles, with updated ways to take videos from your face

The release comes at a troubling time for the company

(Snapchat)

Snap Inc, the parent company of Snapchat, has launched a second version of its Spectacles, the smart sunglasses which record bursts of video. The company released the first version in 2016 in standalone vending machines called Snapbots. Over 220,000 were sold, though there were also many that weren’t.

This new model adds the capability to shoot still photos as well as videos, a slightly altered design and smaller electronics housing which makes this new version more lightweight. The housing, by the way, is called the Chunk, so this model has a shrunk Chunk.

The new model also comes in more colours and a smaller charging case. The frame itself looks the same apart from the fact that the garish yellow circles which surrounded the camera and light circle above the lenses have been replaced by quieter colours which match the frames.

The light circle is there to show the person you’re talking to that you’re recording them so there’s no covert filming. Press the trigger on the left side of the Spectacles and video is recorded while the circle whirls round. Press and hold and it snaps a still photo - while the light quickly flashes to show you’ve taken your shot. By the way, as every Snapchatter knows, when you record on the smartphone app, the mechanics are the other way round, a press snaps a photo, a long-press records a video.

There’s a light on the inside of the frame as well, so the wearer knows when a photo is taken and when a video is coming to an end.

The Spectacles’ charging case has been lightly restyled with the connector moved to the end of the case. The connector inside, as before, sits where the Chunk hits the case.

Better Wi-Fi built in means the transfer of stills and video is smooth, fast and always in HD. The images and videos recorded are in a strange circular format, but this means you can rotate the phone when you’re viewing what you’ve shot, which is quite entertaining.

The new Spectacles are out now, from spectacles.com at £149.99 (a little more than the previous version, which was £129.99). This time around, there will be no Snapbots vending machines selling them, which may mean Snap can assess the demand and inventory more accurately.

There’s one other piece of Snapchat news today, connected to the mobile phone network, Three. It has a tariff called Go Binge which is designed to make using apps on your phone worry-free in terms of data use. Users can indulge in listening to Deezer, Apple Music and Soundcloud or watching Netflix and Dave, for instance, knowing that the data used for this is zero-rated.

From today, Snapchat is part of this deal, so you can use the app as much as you like without it affecting your data allowance. To celebrate, an AR Snapchat pet has been created which can be used with selfie and world lenses. The pet is one of Three’s combination characters, a Puggerfly which is, yes, that’s right a pug and butterfly hybrid. You may have seen the commercial where the Puggerfly runs, tumbles and eventually takes to the air. In the world of Snapchat on your phone, you can throw a ball to him, though in my experience it only bounces cruelly off his snout and makes him shake his head.

The point of the Spectacles, Snap says, is that you can record an event without being separated from it. We’ve all seen people at a concert or other public event so focused on recording it on their phone or tablet that they might as well not have been there. With Spectacles, a tap sorts the recording and you can remain present, which is a definite improvement.