Developer guide
Five platforms, five different bargains: what you write in, what you have to buy, how you ship, and what the assistant on the frame can do for you. Compare them below, or answer the questions and let the guide narrow it down.
Developer news
SDK releases, programmes to apply to, and who to talk toFrom the developer blogs
SnapBuilding Lightweight Social AR Experiences with Lens StudioGoogleWhat’s New in Android XR: Tooling, Engine Support, and Ecosystem UpdatesGoogleUpdates to the Android XR SDK: Introducing Developer Preview 4GoogleAndroid XR Updates for Unity, Unreal, and GodotSnapLens Studio: Unified Platform for Mobile, Web, and AR Glasses DevelopmentSnapAdvanced AR Workspace for Git-Based Version Control in Lens StudioSnapLens Studio: Publish AR Lenses to Snapchat QuicklySnapLens Studio: AI-Powered AR Creation with Text-to-3D and AI Assistant
Developer Programs
Hardware access, previews and research programmes you can join nowMetaWearables Device Access Toolkit
Camera, audio and display access on Meta's AI glasses, plus Neural Band gestures, through a companion mobile app.
Preview
VisitSnapSpectacles Developer Program
Developer Spectacles hardware on subscription with Lens Studio support; Specs 27 is the current target.
Open
VisitMetaProject Aria Research Kit
Aria Gen 2 sensor glasses, tools and support for academic work on egocentric perception — research only, nothing shippable.
Rolling
VisitAndroid XRJetpack XR SDK
Google's own SDK for Android XR, targeting display and audio glasses as well as headsets, with Unity, Unreal, Godot, OpenXR and WebXR routes alongside Jetpack Compose.
Developer preview
VisitApplication windows and costs change without notice — each link goes to the company's own programme page, which is the only authority on status and on whether an application is needed at all.
Open source
The code each maker publishes itself — SDKs, samples, and in two cases the whole productStar counts are a snapshot taken when the row was written, not a live figure. Only first-party repositories are listed: community SDKs exist for several makers, but listing them here would imply support the maker does not offer.
Events, conferences and hackathons
Where glasses developers meet — soonest first, past dates drop off automaticallyMeetupAWE NitesAWE's local AR meetups, run monthly by volunteer chapters in more than thirty cities — Berlin, Tokyo, Tel Aviv, Toronto, Helsinki, Brisbane and on. Each chapter picks its own night and topic, so read your city's listing rather than this row.Worldwide
ConferenceDevFest 2026Hundreds of local conferences run by Google Developer Groups. Android XR sessions turn up at the larger ones, but the programme is set chapter by chapter, so check your local listing rather than assuming.Worldwide
ConferenceIFA 2026Berlin's consumer-electronics floor. There is no developer track, but the makers who skip CES show their next frames here, and the European launch dates tend to be set the same week.Berlin, Germany
ConferenceSPECS Launch 2026Announced in newsroom.snap.com: “See for Yourself: Watch the SPECS Launch on September 16”. Programme and registration are on the organiser's page.Los Angeles, USA · Online
HackathonHack the North 2026Canada's largest student hackathon, 36 hours at the University of Waterloo. Snap has lent Spectacles and run an AR track in past years — check this year's sponsor list before you plan a build around the hardware.Waterloo, Canada
ConferenceMeta Connect 2026Meta's own developer conference, streamed free — the keynote and the wearables sessions are where the glasses toolkits get their yearly reset.Menlo Park, USA
HackathonJunction 2026Europe's largest hackathon — 48 hours outside Helsinki, with challenges set by sponsors. Snap's Spectacles team has brought hardware to past editions; the track list goes up with the challenges.Espoo, Finland
ConferenceXR Kaigi 2026Japan's largest XR conference, three days at Port City Takeshiba. The 2026 programme puts smart-glasses and on-device AI case studies on the main stage. Sessions are Japanese-first.Tokyo, Japan
ConferenceSIGGRAPH Asia 2026The graphics research conference's Asian edition, in Kuala Lumpur for the first time. Waveguide, display and hand-tracking work turns up in these papers a year or two before it reaches a shipping pair.Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
ConferenceUnitedXR Europe 2026What replaced AWE EU: AWE and Stereopsia merged their European events into one. Vendor-neutral like its parent, so competing glasses platforms are demonstrated in the same room.Brussels, Belgium
HackathonReality Hack at MIT 2027The student-run XR hackathon; hardware is lent out on site and past years have run glasses tracks. Exact dates are not published yet.Cambridge, USA
ConferenceCES 2027Trade-only, but the January show floor is where the challenger makers put their next frames in front of developers first.Las Vegas, USA
ConferenceMIDO 2027The eyewear trade's own fair. It matters to this industry from the frames end — lens suppliers, hinges, fit — which is the half of a wearable pair that no SDK fixes.Milan, Italy
ConferenceMWC Barcelona 2027The mobile industry's yearly gathering. Carriers, chipmakers and phone brands announce their glasses tie-ins here, and the Android XR partners usually bring hardware to the floor.Barcelona, Spain
ConferenceLaval Virtual 2027France's long-running XR week, in its 29th edition. The programme leans industrial and enterprise, so it shows glasses being worn for work rather than demonstrated on a stand.Laval, France
ConferenceAWE USA 2027The largest independent AR gathering — vendor-neutral, so it is the one week where every glasses platform is demonstrated side by side.Long Beach, USA
ConferenceAWE Asia 2027AWE's Asian edition, and the shortest trip to see the Chinese glasses makers' line-ups side by side rather than one launch at a time.Shanghai, China