Snapchat Spectacles are now available to buy from Amazon in the UK

Thomas McMullan Read more June 2, 2017

The firm behind Snapchat has made its camera-enabled sunglasses available to buy online in the UK, meaning you can now get hold of its circular-framed Spectacles for £129.99 without having to hunt down a vending machine.

Snapchat Spectacles are now available to buy from Amazon in the UK

The smart glasses, which come with an embedded video camera, and can record footage at the touch of a button, are available from Amazon, as well as directly from Snap Inc.

To help sell its first foray into hardware, Snap had placed a number of vending machines in major European cities last month, including Paris, Berlin, Venice, Barcelona and London – the latter being situated beside the London Eye.

The Spectacles come with an embedded camera in the rim, which records 10-second videos when pressed. The wide-angle, circular-format clips are uploaded to the wearer’s Snapchat account via a Bluetooth or WiFi connection.

“Our products empower people to express themselves, live in the moment, learn about the world, and have fun together,” Snap says, claiming it has reinvented the camera in a way that will “improve the way people live and communicate”.

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That rhetoric may fill you with a deep, lingering sadness, but others, it seems, are keen on the face-strapped snappers. The spectacles have reportedly been a hit in the US, with talk of long queues and pairs being listed on eBay for figures reaching $1,000 (£775).

“Specs make memories – from your perspective,” Snap’s website says, like a billboard in the background of a dystopian film.

The Spectacles were part of Snap’s rebranding, ahead of its IPO in March, to be seen as a camera company. As it’s first effort in that arena, the camera-enabled glasses are a pitch for an older, affluent demographic compared to its teen-oriented Snapchat app.

Chief executive Evan Spiegel has said Snap will “keep experimenting” with hardware, presumably dependent on how well the Spectacles perform globally. If they do take off, expect more kickback over the privacy and security concerns of literally strapping a video camera to your face – not to mention the existential crisis of having your ‘memories’ logged on a cloud server somewhere cold and remote, ready to be replayed, shared and liked.