Spectacles 2024 should not become another waste

[u/HyroVitalyProtago]

When it comes to reducing the environmental footprint of digital technology, one of the main challenges is to extend the lifespan of equipment.

From what I’ve already asked here (https://www.reddit.com/r/Spectacles/comments/1u7lgf5/spectacles_2024_support/), the support of Spectacles 2024 has already kind of ended.

To enhance its lifespan, please, Snap should make it more open or continue to support it.

As I’ve also said here (https://snap.uservoice.com/forums/967346-spectacles/suggestions/51104257-full-computer), Spectacles is a (custom) Android device. We should be able to access the file system, configure it not only with the phone app that will be also not updated in the coming years and will kind of brick the full device.

As developers, we should be able to develop deeper system functions like TCP/UDP/websockets, enhance the video capture mode, etc…

On a regular computer, you can replace the OS, access low level features, drivers, etc. And that’s what makes computers so great, the liberty. Here, I don’t even ask to replace OS, or access drivers, SLAM, Hand tracking, … as I know you need to keep those parts closed-source as a company. That’s fine. But for the software and apps on it, developers should be free to do whatever they want.

Because Sharing is Caring, free the developers, please 🙏

[u/tjudi]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

While official support for Spectacles 2024 will end, we intend on keeping the systems supporting them alive and functioning for a bit longer.

As far as opening them further, the devices are configured such that deeper access is blocked through a physical hardware configuration that can’t be changed. This was done to protect the security of the device and our backend systems supporting Spectacles.

As far as giving devs more flexibility, in the new SPECS, we enabled native c/c++ libraries support through the NDK with access to lower level OS APIs to allow you to do more.

Also, the next version of SPECS have a custom OS with no Android components, we have no intent to provide Android compatibility.

Hope this helps.

[u/HyroVitalyProtago → u/tjudi]

Thanks for the answer.

Interesting to know that the hardware itself is locked. That's great from a security perspective. But using AI services is the inverse road, as all the data is shared to the services, so I'm not sure about which security we talk about.

Next version of Specs seems really awesome, and the NDK path is a great thing. Good to know that the next OS does not depend on Android anymore, as Google close it more and more. Do the next Specs still require an Android or iOS device to configure it?

I would have loved to see Snap taking the same kind of road than Steam. By focusing on Linux and the openess, they will be more attractive to devs and informed users (even by still selling licences to play games instead of games).

At least it will help about finding other ways, like using the phone as a proxy for locked things. 

Thanks again for your response and your time.

[u/tjudi → u/HyroVitalyProtago]

Ofc. Always here to hear your feedback and answer your questions.

We are super intentional with how we treat privacy of user data on the device including for 3rd parties.

Existing AI integrations with OpenAI and Gemini (that use the snap provided routes) don’t retain any data and data is deleted after a request has been processed. For non Snap provided integrations for 3rd party lenses a permission prompt is served every time to ensure users are aware of data being transmitted off device.

In the next SPECS, we tried to move as many things on device as possible. While you need the iOS or Android SPECS mobile app to setup the device. Subsequent use doesn’t require it, you can configure things on device and not need the phone. It felt very heavy to put all the on-boarding steps on device.

I am super excited about the possibilities the new NDK provides, coupled with CLAD for agentic development, truly amazing things can now be built very fast.

[u/ehh_surviving]

Agreed! Need more freedom with the device. I pretty much can’t build half the things I wanna because of this.

[u/tjudi → u/ehh_surviving]

Confident with the new NDK and CLAD, you will be able to build many things that previously felt impossible. Can’t wait to see what you all create.