What was Snap Inc.'s first hardware product?

Snap Inc.’s first hardware product was Spectacles.

Spectacles were camera-equipped smartglasses unveiled in September 2016, when the company was still transitioning from Snapchat Inc. to Snap Inc. The product was designed to let users capture short, first-person videos without holding up a phone. Snap described them as a way to make recording feel more natural and spontaneous.

The first-generation glasses were released in November 2016 through bright yellow Snapbot vending machines, initially making them a novelty as well as a consumer product. They later became available online. Spectacles are sometimes confused with Snapbot, but Snapbot was only the vending machine used to sell them. Pixy, the company’s small camera drone, came much later, in 2022.

Spectacles established Snap’s move beyond software into wearable cameras and augmented-reality hardware. Later generations added improved cameras, water resistance, 3D capture and, eventually, see-through AR displays.