Despite being one of the few companies offering fully standalone AR glasses with its Spectacles, Snap is often viewed as an outsider in the broader XR community due to its distinct approach to AR.

As major tech companies like Meta, Apple, and Google vie for dominance in the AR glasses market, Snap must strategically position itself to ensure future success.

Spiegel's keynote at AWE 2025 will be alongside established industry players such as Qualcomm and XREAL, further underscoring Snap's commitment to integrating into the XR community.

Snap Inc's CEO Evan Spiegel is set to deliver a keynote address at AWE 2025 in June, where he will highlight the company's innovations in augmented reality (AR) as part of its strategy to strengthen its position in the extended reality (XR) sector.

Snap envisions its Spectacles as potential replacements for smartphones, promoting a more interactive experience with the surrounding environment rather than with traditional devices.

Snap is working on developing its own AR ecosystem, which includes Snap OS for Spectacles and Lens Studio for developers, although this approach complicates the integration of existing XR content.

In contrast to competitors like Meta's Quest and Apple's Vision Pro, which prioritize gaming and productivity, Snap focuses on social and location-based AR experiences.

The AWE 2025 event will take place from June 10-12 in Long Beach, California, and is expected to attract over 6,000 attendees along with 300 exhibitors, with early-bird tickets currently available at a discount.

Scott Myers, Snap's VP of Hardware, has emphasized the company's dedication to building a developer-friendly platform, continuously iterating based on feedback from the developer community.