Everything we know about Snapchat's new camera glasses, Spectacles

Snapchat isn't just an app anymore.

On Friday the company officially renamed itself to Snap Inc. and announced a pair of camera-equipped sunglasses called Spectacles.

After Business Insider obtained and published a video of the glasses in action, Snap officially announced the news in The Wall Street Journal.

Snap has been secretly working on these glasses for years, dating back to its acquisition of a small startup called Vergence Labs in 2014.

Sources close to the company say CEO Evan Spiegel and cofounder Bobby Murphy have been closely involved in making the glasses with a small, top-secret team known internally as Snap Labs.

We don't know everything about how Snap's Spectacles will work, and the company isn't saying when they will be available besides "this fall." But here's what we do know so far: 

Snap's Spectacles will cost $129 and come in three colors: black, teal, and coral. They will be available in limited quantity sometime this fall.

Snapchat

The glasses record up to 10 seconds of circular video through a 115-degree-angle lens, which is designed to look closer to how the human eye sees.

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel recounted a hiking trip he took while wearing the glasses to The Journal:

"I could see my own memory, through my own eyes—it was unbelievable. It’s one thing to see images of an experience you had, but it’s another thing to have an experience of the experience. It was the closest I’d ever come to feeling like I was there again.”

You tap the side of the frames to start recording. A light will then illuminate for the length of the video.

Video you record will be wirelessly sent to the Memories section of the Snapchat app. From there you can choose to post the video to your account's Story for others to see.

Snapchat

Spectacles will connect to your phone via a Bluetooth or Wi-Fi connection, according to thecompany blog.

You'll be able to rotate between vertical and landscape video when viewing recorded footage.

Battery life should last you for a day, and each pair will come with a charging case.

Snapchat

The Verge confirmed with Snap that the Spectacles should get "about a day" of battery life on a single charge. You can double tap the side of the frames to see a battery life indicator.

Snap also told The Verge that the charging case will come with a cable that can recharge the glasses up to four times.

CEO Evan Spiegel wants the glasses to be thought of as a "toy" for now.

Snapchat

"We’re going to take a slow approach to rolling them out,” he told The Journal. “It’s about us figuring out if it fits into people’s lives and seeing how they like it.”

These glasses are clearly just the beginning for Snap's hardware ambitions. It now calls itself "a camera company."

Billboards are going up with the new logo for Spectacles.Justin Wu/Twitter

"When we were just getting started it made sense to name our company Snapchat Inc., because Snapchat was our only product!" Spiegel wrote on the company blog. "Now that we are developing other products, like Spectacles, we need a name that goes beyond just one product – but doesn’t lose the familiarity and fun of our team and brand."

"Changing our name also has another benefit: when you search for our products it will be easier to find relevant product information rather than boring company information or financial analysis. You can search Snapchat or Spectacles for the fun stuff and leave Snap Inc. for the Wall Street crowd :)"