Snapchat to offer camera-equipped sunglasses in first hardware push

Snap Inc, the newly renamed parent company of messaging app Snapchat, plans to start selling camera-equipped sunglasses starting this fall, Chief Executive Evan Spiegel told the Wall Street Journal in an interview.

The sunglasses, dubbed Spectacles, will be sold via limited distribution for about $130, said Spiegel, who described the device as a toy.

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

The first hardware to be sold by Snap, the sunglasses will record video from the user's perspective in 10-second increments that can be synched with his or her smart-phone.

The one-size-fits-all glasses come in black, teal or coral and will be available this fall in limited quantities.

The company also changed its corporate name to Snap Inc. to characterize its ambitions beyond the messaging app that has made it so popular, particularly among teens and millennials, reported WSJ.

About 150 million people use Snapchat daily during which more than 10 billion videos are viewed, according to the company.

Snapchat’s domination with younger audiences has helped the company earn an $18 billion valuation from investors.