Snap loses Specs SVP Scott Myers ahead of consumer AR glasses launch

Snap is trying—again—to turn augmented reality glasses from a developer toy into a mass-market product. And right as the company says its new “Specs” will ship later this year, it has lost the senior executive in charge of the effort.

According to TechCrunch, Scott Myers, Snap’s SVP of Specs, has stepped down. The blog Sources first reported the departure and described it as following a “blow-up” with CEO Evan Spiegel over “strategy.” Snap disputes the characterization but not the outcome: Myers is gone, and the company says it remains focused on “disciplined execution” ahead of the launch.

The timing is awkward because Snap has been signaling that Specs is no longer a perpetual prototype. In January, Snap spun the project into a separate subsidiary, Specs Inc., ostensibly for “greater operational focus and alignment,” per TechCrunch. Spinning out a team is one way to reduce internal friction; it’s also a way to cordon off a product that’s expensive, politically sensitive, and prone to slipping schedules.

Myers’ résumé—SpaceX, Apple, Nokia—suggests Snap wanted an operator who understands both consumer hardware and unforgiving production constraints. In an interview cited by TechCrunch, Myers framed Specs as an “entirely new paradigm” and joked about not wanting users “wearing a wire coming out of the back of their head.” That quip is less fashion commentary than physics: AR glasses live under a tyranny of power, heat, optics, and battery density. If you don’t want a tether, you need energy storage and thermal dissipation inside something that must look like eyewear, not lab equipment.

This is where Snap’s ambitions collide with the reality Apple and Meta have already taught the market. Apple’s Vision line (and Meta’s headsets) can deliver impressive experiences by accepting bulk, heavy batteries, and obvious “I am wearing a computer” aesthetics. Everyday AR—glasses you’d wear outdoors, for hours, without looking like a walking heat sink—requires a supply chain that can produce advanced waveguides, microdisplays, cameras, and custom silicon at scale while keeping weight, temperature, and cost within consumer tolerance.

A leadership exit over “strategy” on the eve of commercialization is not proof of failure, but it is a tell: the hard part is no longer the demo. The hard part is deciding what compromises are acceptable when physics, bill of materials, and yield rates start vetoing product visions.

If Specs ships this year, it will be a rare case of a social-media company attempting to become a real hardware manufacturer rather than a marketing layer on top of someone else’s components. Investors should ask the obvious question Snap’s press release cannot answer: is this a product plan, or just another expensive way to keep a platform relevant while the rest of the industry burns money turning “AR” into something you can actually wear without needing a thermal budget spreadsheet?