Snapchat unveils Spectacles, but Miranda Kerr won’t model the video-sharing sunglasses

The team behind the social media app Snapchat has stepped up its game and unveiled Sunday its first hardware device, a pair of fashionable video-sharing sunglasses dubbed “Spectacles,” which can rival the highly expensive Google Glass.

Intended to sync with the Snapchat app, Spectacles lets wearers record 10-second-long videos using the sunglass’ 115-degree angle lens. Users only need to tap a button on the frame to start recording.

“Spectacles are sunglasses with an integrated video camera that makes it easy to create Memories,” Team Snap said in a statement, coinciding the company’s rebranding to Snap, Inc.

“We’ve created one of the smallest wireless video cameras in the world, capable of taking a day’s worth of Snaps on a single charge, and we integrated it seamlessly into a fun pair of sunglasses.”

Spectacles connect wirelessly to any smartphone to broadcast the video on Snapchat. The smart glasses comes in three colour variants: coral, teal and black, and it charges through its equally fashionable casing.

“Spectacles connect directly to Snapchat via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi and transfer your Memories directly into the app in our brand new circular video format.

“Circular video plays full screen on any device, in any orientation, and captures the human perspective with a 115 degree field of view. We can’t wait for you to see it!”

Snap Inc. CEO Evan Spiegel rocked a pair for a Wall Street Journal article wherein he recounted testing a prototype in early 2015 while hiking with fiancée, Aussie supermodel Miranda Kerr.

“It was our first vacation, and we went to Big Sur for a day or two. We were walking through the woods, stepping over logs, looking up at the beautiful trees. And when I got the footage back and watched it, I could see my own memory, through my own eyes—it was unbelievable," he told WSJ.

“It’s one thing to see images of an experience you had, but it’s another thing to have an experience of the experience. It was the closest I’d ever come to feeling like I was there again.”

As expected, Kerr threw support to her 26-year-old husband-to-be, but ironically, the 33-year-old IT girl did not model the smart glasses.

Spectacles, however, won’t be in retail stores until later this fall. Spectacles release date, battery life and weight remains unknown but it will be sold for only US$129.99 (AU$170.50), which is considerably way cheaper than US$1,500 (AU$2,000) Google Glass.

The millennial-friendly Snapchat reportedly caters to 150 million daily users, compared to rival Instagram, which has 300 million daily users worldwide.

WATCH: Snap Inc. introduces Spectacles