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Snapchat's secret camera sunglasses just showed up in a video

Snapchat's secret camera sunglasses just showed up in a video

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Like Google Glass, but actually somewhat stylish

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There's yet more evidence that Snapchat might be working on a pair of sunglasses with a video camera built in. A promotional video for the unannounced-but-previously-rumored glasses was apparently just sitting on YouTube, and a tipster forwarded that clip to Business Insider. When questioned about the video, Snapchat immediately issued a copyright takedown and had it removed from YouTube. Thankfully Business Insider saved everything before it went offline.

The glasses are apparently branded as Spectacles, and it's impossible to miss the circular camera in the outer, upper corner of the frame. A ring of LEDs light up whenever the Spectacles are recording. We don't really catch a glimpse of how the device works or how recording is activated; all the video shows is that users can review footage on a mobile device afterwards. The rest of the commercial actually sticks closely to early Google Glass ads; the Spectacles can capture a first-person perspective on some of life's big moments. But unlike Google Glass, these look a fair bit closer to everyday sunglasses — just with that big, pretty obvious camera in the corner.

Earlier this year, Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel was seen wearing a prototype of the Spectacles in paparazzi photos. Compare the two and they look awfully similar, though Spiegel's didn't feature the tiny yellow circle that's a subtle hint towards Snapchat's brand. In 2014, the Sony email hack revealed that Snapchat had purchased a company developing this type of technology for $15 million. Now the question becomes whether these Specatcles camera glasses — like Google Glass but without the augmented reality stuff — remain an active project for the company and when we might hear more.