Snap Inc.’s CEO is gearing up for a major appearance this coming June at AWE 2025. Known for their Snapchat app and Spectacles AR glasses, Snap is looking to solidify its place in the XR world. This event provides a prime platform for them to showcase their latest progress in augmented reality.
While Snap might be offering one of the few standalone AR glasses you can buy right now, folks in the wider XR sector still see them as somewhat of an outlier. The reason? Snap’s taking a unique path to realize its AR ambitions, setting itself apart from other big industry names.
If you look at standalone devices, the Quest or the PSVR 2 cater mainly to gamers, while Apple’s Vision Pro zeroes in on entertainment and work productivity. But Snap’s Spectacles? They’re straight out of a social media playbook. They’re meant for experiences that are either location-based or involve sharing with others physically around you.
This June, Evan Spiegel, the driving force behind Snap, will be a keynote speaker at AWE 2025. It’s one of the most significant XR conferences, held from June 10th to 12th in Long Beach, California. The event is gearing up for over 6,000 attendees, with 300 exhibitors, 400 speakers, and a sprawling 150,000-square-foot expo floor. If you’re interested, early-bird tickets are up for grabs, and readers of Road to VR can snag a nifty 20% discount.
Joining Spiegel on the stage are heavyweights like Qualcomm and XREAL, firms that have already established strong roots at this conference and within the industry.
Snap’s approach has led some to see them as outsiders, largely due to their commitment to building an independent AR ecosystem from scratch. They’re not just producing AR glasses; they’re developing their own Snap OS specifically for Spectacles and a unique authoring tool called Lens Studio. This means developers need to get up to speed on new tech rather than rely on more common tools like Unity, making content porting a challenge.
Despite these hurdles, Snap’s devotion to pioneering their ground-up platform reflects their genuine investment in the XR field. In a conversation with Road to VR, Snap’s VP of Hardware, Scott Myers, emphasized that Spectacles are not merely an extension of Snapchat. The company envisions these glasses—and others like them—eventually replacing smartphones entirely. This vision is why the Spectacles stand alone, unlinked from phones or external computing units.
“We want people to look up through their glasses, not down at their phones,” Myers explains.
Beyond their social and locational AR focus, Myers stresses their goal to create the best developer platform worldwide by crafting excellent tools and listening closely to feedback. He personally tests Spectacles nearly every day to trial new features. “We’re learning alongside developers, making development as seamless as we can,” he shares.
To carve out success amid the likes of tech giants such as Meta, Apple, and Google, Snap will need to make some strategic moves as they all race to create the leading pair of mainstream AR glasses.
Road to VR is thrilled to partner as the exclusive Premier Media Partner for AWE USA 2025, offering our readers a special 20% ticket discount for this exciting event.
