Starting today, you can post Snaps with your face.
In September, Snap Inc. (formerly called Snapchat) announced Spectacles, $130 sunglasses that can shoot first-person videos and upload them to ephemeral-messaging service Snapchat. Starting Thursday, you can buy those glasses if you're in the right place on the right day. Here's what we know.
They'll only be sold through 'Snapbots'
Forget preorders or waltzing into a Best Buy. Instead, you'll need to hunt down a Snapbot, a vending machine just for selling Spectacles. It looks like this:
Snapbots will visit one location, for a day at a time
It seems Snapchat has just one vending machine at the moment that will journey across the US, one spot at a time. You can expect the locations to be big cities or densely populated areas, like New York and Los Angeles, for example. The first stop is Venice Beach, California, but the company said you can expect a bot to pop up in "places where you're excited to make memories."
Each visit will last about a day.
Track Snapbots using a map or app
If you want to keep track of the Snapbots, check out this map. Snap will share the next location 24 hours prior to its "landing." Right now there's one on Venice Beach. The bots will only be available in the US.
In the Snapchat app a Spectacles Geofilter will be available if a bot is nearby. You'll need to have location services on to see Geofilters, though.
You'll be able to virtually try on Spectacles
If you're not sure which color Spectacles to choose, you'll be able to virtually try on any pair of glasses through the bot. Spectacles come in black, teal and coral. (You can also try them on through the Snapchat app.)
People are already buying them!
Select your color on the bot, put in a debit or credit card, and 10 seconds -- and $130 -- later the Spectacles will come out. Specs come with one charging case, one charging cable and one cleaning cloth. They're fully charged so you can Snap up to 400 times right out of the bot.
Snapchat is tweeting photos of people visiting the first Snapbot in Santa Monica. Check it out:
