• Snap's fifth-gen Spectacles are getting a major update
• The update includes new location-based tools and better hand-tracking
• There are also new AR dog-walking and basketball-coaching apps

While Meta, Google, and Samsung take up a lot of the air in the next-gen AR glasses space with their lofty plans, they aren’t the only players – and Snap is making sure we don’t forget that, with a suite of new health-related updates and apps rolling out to its fifth-generation Snap Spectacles to celebrate six months since their launch.

The Snap Spectacles are developer-focused, so the changes focus around app-making tools, such as unlocking the ability to build new software that incorporates GPS, Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), and compass heading data, or is built for specific locations.

As an example of this in use, there's NavigatAR from Utopia Lab, which facilitates AR-enhanced navigation between two places, and Path Pioneer, which allows you to create customized AR walking courses to help keep people active.

If you want to see these tools used in a more finished state there’s Doggo Quest, which brings your furry friend into AR. SnapML (Snap’s machine learning) can recognize your dog and create a visual overlay that tracks metrics like the route you’ve taken and your pup’s step count – even gamifying the experience with virtual rewards.

Then there's Basketball Trainer which, as the name implies, is an AR basketball coach that can provide you with shooting drills, and track your shots using SnapML to provide you with a live score update. This tool sounds ideal for fledgling sports stars who want to improve their game between their in-person training sessions.

Beyond fitness, Snap is also adding new hand-tracking capabilities such as phone detector – so the glasses can recognize when you have a phone out – and an improved AR keyboard for more streamlined typing.

For now, Snap’s latest specs are only available through its developer program, which costs $99 plus tax per month (or €110 including VAT in the EU, around £90 / AU$190) unless you get a 50% educational discount. But that doesn’t mean we can’t get excited about the software being made for them today.

Consumer smart glasses are coming (for example, Meta’s Orion AR glasses are expected to launch in 2027, and I’m sure they won’t be alone), but it’s no use having impressive next-gen XR tech if it can’t do anything exciting.

These developer kits and early apps should mean that when the tech is rolled out to the public there will be a host of uses for our smart glasses out the box on day one that’ll make them feel like a worthwhile wearable – and not an overpriced fashion accessory.

We’ll obviously have to wait and see what Snap, Meta, Google, and the rest have up their sleeves when next-gen AR glasses make their consumer debut, but this update has me excited for an XR future which can’t come soon enough.

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