Snapchat unveils new name, video glasses

Communications app Snapchat has a new name, Snap Inc., and is getting into the hardware business.

Early Saturday, Snapchat, one of the most popular smartphone apps, reaching 100 million visitors daily, announced its first physical product, available later this year:

Spectacles are $ 129.99 glasses that can record up to 10 seconds of video, similar to Google Glass.

Glass was the ill- fated attempt by Google to get people wearing $ 1,500 computerized glasses in 2013 that could surf the Web and record images. Instead, the Glass project got poor reviews and poor response from neighbors and was shelved by Google.

In a news release, Snapchat described Spectacles as “the best way to make memories ... handsfree, with the simple tap of a button.” It put up a bare- bones website to announce the product, Spectacles. com, and says the video glasses will be “landing soon.” It hasn’t supplied ordering information.

Snapchat says it will have just a “limited” number of Spectacles available for purchase.

The new name Snap Inc. represents how the Venice Beach, Calif., company is diversifying into other products.

SNAPCHAT The new Spectacles can record up to 10 seconds of video.