Snapchat launches camera-enabled Spectacles in UK

Snapchat users can now record 10-second video clips which are then uploaded onto their accounts, all by using a pair of glasses.

Spectacles, which are camera-enabled glasses that connect with Snapchat, have launched in the UK, following their release in the United States in November.

The glasses capture video in a wide-angled, circular format, designed to mimic the field of vision of the human eye.

The glasses, which will cost £130, will be available online and will also be sold from bright yellow vending machines, known as Snapbots, which move to a new location everyday.

After their launch in the US, long queues were reported at Snapbots and Spectacles were listed on eBay for more than £775 as demand soared.

It is estimated the company has sold more than 60,000 pairs of Spectacles in the US so far, and chief executive Evan Spiegel has said the company will "keep experimenting" with hardware products.

The tech giant has now placed Snapbots in London, Paris, Berlin, Barcelona and Venice to mark the European launch, and said more would appear in other locations in the UK and Europe during the summer.

Spectacles are the first major smartglasses product since Google's ill-fated Glass augmented reality eyewear, which launched in 2014 and enabled users to read messages and get directions as well as take photos.

Google withdrew Glass from sale in early 2015 after concerns were raised over privacy and safety, but said it was working on a new version of the device.

The Snapchat app has around 166 million daily active users, with more than 55 million in Europe.

It says more than three billion snaps are captured with its in-app camera every day.