Snap eyes up revenue growth with launch of new edition of Snapchat Spectacles

Snap will be hoping for a change in fortunes with the launch of its new version of wearable Snapchat Spectacles.

The specs look like regular sunglasses, but carry a camera that allows the user to take 10-second clips that can be sent to a user’s Snapchat app.

The company’s first edition of the glasses led Snap to take a $40m write down for unsold stock, as its shares plunged by more than 16 per cent in after-hours trading last November.

But Snap’s new specs are waterproof, letting users take pictures from the pool or the beach, and downloading a clip now only takes three seconds – a third the time of the previous version.

Read more: Has Snapchat snapped?

The new edition of the product shows Snap’s intent to mark itself as a camera company rather than just a social media app.

It also said it wanted the Spectacles to let users “live in the moment” while they snapchatted their lives.

The new gadget also boasts better image resolution and recorded sound quality, and has added the option for still photographs as well as videos.

Snap Spectacles will retail at $150, $20 dollars more than the first edition which was released in November 2016.

It follows a tough year for the social media giant’s following its enormous float on the New York Stock Exchange in March 2017.

The glasses will be available to buy from Spectacles.com or within Snapchat’s app.

Snap is gearing up to release its earnings to investors next week on Tuesday 1 May.