Snapchat reportedly working on own smart glasses

PanARMENIAN.Net - Snapchat's hiring history and recent job postings suggest the company is likely working on some smart glasses of its own, Business Insider reports.

On Friday, CNET's Sean Hollister published a detailed report that examines some key hires by Snapchat in the consumer hardware, electrical engineering, and augmented- and virtual-reality spaces.

Hollister, citing the LinkedIn profiles of current Snapchat employees, highlights that Snapchat now has a team of almost a dozen wearable experts and has also hired industrial designers who have worked on Nokia and Logitech hardware.

The idea that Snapchat is secretly planning to launch its own smart glasses isn't exactly new — people began speculating about some sort of "Snapglasses" back in 2014 when the company acquired the Google Glass-like startup Vergence Labs, which sold stylish sunglasses that could surreptitiously capture video by tapping a button on the side of the eyewear.

In addition to the Vergence Lab team, CNET points out that Snapchat has hired an eyewear designer, Lauryn Morris, and a former recruiter for Microsoft's Hololens augmented-reality goggles, Mark Dixon, among others with relevant hardware experience.