How to order prescription Snapchat Spectacles
Fear not, glasses wearers. Prescription lenses for Spectacles, Snap's video-camera glasses, have arrived.
Rochester Optical, a lens manufacturer based in Rochester, New York, is now cutting and selling prescription lenses for Spectacles, the company announced Thursday.
The lenses start at $99 and cost depends on prescription strength, lens type and coating. The lens types include standard plastic, high-index, polarized Rx Sun or photochromic.
Interested purchasers must complete an online order form and then ship their Spectacles directly to the store.
Turnaround will depend on the complexity of the prescription, but a safe estimate for processing is two to three days plus one day for shipping (not including the time it takes for the Spectacles to arrive at the lens manufacturer).
Rochester Optical was the first company to sell a prescription lens solution for Google Glass back in 2014. It also offers lenses for Microsoft's HoloLens, Sony's SmartEyeglasses and other tech wearables.
Rochester Optical will completely replace the existing lenses in Spectacles, instead of retrofitting them.
"We’ve been working with heads-up displays for a long time, and Spectacles are just a form of smart glasses without the heads-up-display. We already cut similar notches in lenses for Google Glass to accommodate the HUD, so cutting rounded notches in the lens corners to work around the Spectacle cameras is very similar," Patrick Ho, CEO of Rochester Optical, said in a statement.
Rochester Optical isn't the only company offering a prescription solution for Spectacles. Sarah Evans, a branded content creator, went to LensCrafters in Las Vegas earlier this month and got her pair of Spectacles fitted with Transitions, lenses that are clear indoors and darken when exposed to sunlight.
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LensCrafters told Business Insider it is retrofitting Spectacles on a "case by case basis."
"Ultimately, we need to be sure every lens we create for a frame is done so to the highest standard of quality," a company spokesperson said.
Snap, the makers of Spectacles, has avoided selling prescription lenses for their product and advises owners to consult an optician.
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Snap's Spectacles support page has a section for opticians that reads, "Never apply heat or water anywhere near the front of the frame where the electronics are housed while handling Specs. Rx total power cannot exceed -5 diopters." It also includes a contact form.
Rochester Optical, for its part, noted that it will work with most prescriptions despite Snap's recommendation.
"We are proud to say that we have skilled technicians and state of the art equipment to manufacture lenses for strong prescriptions," Sam Chen, business analyst at Rochester Optical, told Mashable. "The determination factors and recommendations are mostly based on the quality of optics, cosmetics, comfort and weight of the lenses."
Kerry Flynn is a business reporter for Mashable covering the tech industry. She previously reported on social media companies, mobile apps and startups for International Business Times. She has also written for The Huffington Post, Forbes and Money magazine. Kerry studied environmental science and economics at Harvard College, where she led The Harvard Crimson's metro news and design teams and played mellophone in the Band. When not listening to startup pitches, she runs half-marathons, plays with puppies and pretends to like craft beer.
