Google is taking one other swing on the sensible glasses market, decided to depart the missteps of Google Glass up to now.
On Dec. 12, the corporate unveiled Android XR, a brand new, cutting-edge working system for headsets and sensible glasses. With the competitors heating up from the Meta Quest collection and Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional main the market, Google is banking on its Gemini generative AI to set its providing aside.
Among the many first units slated to leverage Android XR is a pair of Samsung glasses, codenamed Venture Moohan, anticipated to hit retailer cabinets in 2025. The tech large says the long run headsets and sensible glasses will “transform how you watch, work, and explore.”
Whereas Google has but to announce a timeline for added {hardware} or software program constructed on Android XR, the working system is already accessible in preview for builders and choose companions.
What makes Android XR completely different?
Combining Android XR, Google Gemini, and the glasses {hardware} means the units can:
- Reply natural-language questions on your environment utilizing Gemini.
- Search the web or create an AI-guided to-do listing with pure language.
- Play YouTube and Google TV.
- Show Google Pictures in a digital actuality gallery.
- Use Circle to Search to get extra details about an object in the actual world or an merchandise on-line.
Google intends for Android XR to energy varied varieties of sensible glasses.
“We want there to be lots of choices of stylish, comfortable glasses you’ll love to wear every day and that work seamlessly with your other Android devices,” Shahram Izadi, Google’s VP and basic supervisor of Prolonged Actuality, wrote in a weblog publish.
The tech large plans to begin privately testing Android XR on new {hardware} quickly. Anticipate new units from Google’s Qualcomm companions, notably Sony, Lynx, and XREAL.
SEE: Google’s latest AI mannequin, Gemini 2.0 Flash, is an incremental transfer towards ‘agentic’ AI.
Builders can strive the Android XR software program growth package now
Builders can experiment with the Android XR software program growth package as we speak by visiting developer.android.com/develop/xr. Google is accepting purposes for an Android XR Developer Bootcamp, which can present early entry to {hardware} in change for collaboration with the interior XR crew.
Android XR is suitable with ARCore, Android Studio, Jetpack Compose, Unity, and OpenXR.
Since Android XR consists of the Android Play Retailer, builders with apps already within the Play Retailer can mechanically make these apps accessible on prolonged actuality units. To translate standard apps to prolonged actuality, Android recommends utilizing its automated instruments for spatializing Materials Design (M3) parts and Compose for adaptive layouts.
