If you're walking down the street and see a weird-looking, Minion-like vending machine, fear not — it just wants to sell you some Spectacles from Snap Inc.
Snap introduced Spectacles back in September, aiming to widen the horizon of the Snapchat ecosystem beyond smartphone cameras. The spectacles are now on sale via special vending machines that wake up as you approach them, detecting your presence via motion sensors.
The vending machines look like huge yellow minions and as you approach one, you'll see a big digital eye acknowledging your presence and seemingly wanting to interact with you.
Snapbots Changing Location
Snap calls these interactive vending machines Snapbots and uses them to sell the $130 spectacles. Don't expect to see Snapbots as ubiquitously as ATMs spread all across town, as these special vending machines will be quite a rare sight. Snap will drop a few Snapbots across the country, with the first one landing today on Venice Beach, near the company's Southern California headquarters.
Snapbots won't spend more than a day in the same town. They'll make an appearance, sell a few Spectacles, and move on to the next location. If you get one in your city, it will be pretty hard to miss. A huge yellow Snapbot adorned with big yellow balloons is likely not your everyday sight.
Snap's video recording sunglasses called Spectacles will be available only via Snapbots at first, as no other retail distribution will be in place for months. Snap has made it easy to track the Snapbots' journey, however, setting up a Spectacles website so you can easily see where the Snapbots will make an appearance next. The funny-looking vending machines will reportedly be placed in fun places that are common attractions for tourists, so check the map regularly to see where it's headed next.
Snapbots Preview Of Snap Spectacles
When you approach a Snapbot and wake it up, it will offer a preview of Spectacles video footage so you get a better idea of what it's all about. You can push three buttons — black, coal and teal — to simulate an experience on the digital screen of the Snapbot that will resemble that of a Snapchat lens. This way, curious customers can see the lens in the three colors.
If you pull out your credit or debit card and buy the $130 Spectacles, you'll be pleasantly surprised to see that Spectacles already have battery power so you can immediately start recording clips. You can then import the videos into the fist Snapchat app account you sync with the device.
All in all, this whole strategy of selling Spectacles via funny-looking vending machines seems to break the pattern in an original and fun manner, which will likely boost its appeal.
Check out the short videos below to see the Snapbots and Spectacles in action.
