Google’s latest push into augmented reality is making progress. Although the company is not completely ready to show any products yet, it has put forward the vision of a unified Android XR ecosystem that will include a series of devices – such as virtual reality headsets and mixed reality glasses – in collaboration with Samsung. and Qualcomm.
This is apparently Alphabet’s latest attempt to compete with the likes of Meta and Apple on the augmented reality front. The company has entered this arena in the past with the likes of Google Glass, Daydream and Google Cardboard, programs that found their way to the Google Graveyard. Android XR seems ambitious, and having a big-name partner from the jump shows that Alphabet is serious about augmented reality this time around.
Google has been tight-lipped about XR behind the scenes despite shutting down some of its top projects in that realm. “Google is not a stranger in this category,” Sameer Samat, president of the Android Ecosystem at Google, told reporters before the announcement. “We, like many others, have made efforts here before. I think the idea was right, but the technology wasn’t ready yet.”
One area where Google thinks technology has advanced to the point where it’s ready to try again with the XR is artificial intelligence. Gemini will be deeply integrated into Android XR. By tapping into the power of the chatbot and having a virtual user based on voice and natural conversation, Google and its partners aim to deliver an experience that is truly impossible to withdraw using gestures and controls.
“We’re in what we call the Gemini Era, and breakthroughs in AI with muti-modal models are giving us all new ways to interact with computers,” Samat said. “We believe that the digital assistant integrated into your XR experience is a killer form factor application, just like email or texting was on a smartphone.”
Google believes that smart glasses and headsets are a natural way to test this technology, rather than holding your smartphone up to something in the world that you want Gemini to look at. To that end, the wide array of emerging XR devices, such as VR headsets with passthrough (the ability to see the outside world while wearing one) is another aspect of Google’s push into that space.
We’ll get our first real look at Android XR products next year, including those Google is developing in partnership with Samsung. The first headset, currently called Project Moohan (which means “infinity” in Korean), will feature “high-end displays,” a pass-through and multi-mode environmental input, according to Samsung. It is planned to be a lightweight headset that is ergonomically designed to maximize comfort.
A rendering of the Moohan prototype (pictured above) suggests the headset will look a bit like the Apple Vision Pro, perhaps with a glass visor on the front. Along with the headset, Samsung is working on Google XR glasses, with more details coming soon.
But encrypting the hardware won’t matter much if you can’t do something interesting with it. As such, Google is now looking to bring developers into the fold to build apps and products for Android XR. The company provides developers with APIs, an emulator and hardware development tools to help them build the XR experience.
On its side of things, Google is promising an “infinite desktop” for those using the productivity platform. Its core applications are also being considered for augmented reality. That includes Chrome, Photos, Meet, Maps (with a fixed view of landmarks) and Google Play. On top of that, mobile and tablet apps from Google Play are said to work out of the box.
YouTube, it seems, will be able to easily switch from augmented reality to VR. And on Google TV, you’ll be able to switch from an AR view to a home movie theater view when you start a movie.
A demo video showed a person wearing earphones using a combination of their voice and a physical keyboard and mouse to navigate through a series of Chrome windows. The Search Circle will be one of many features. After you use the tool to look something up, you can use the Gemini command to refine the results. It will be possible to pull a 3D image rendering from image search results and manipulate it with a touch.
As for the AR glasses – essentially the next-generation Google Glass – it looks like you’ll be able to use them to interpret signs and speech, and ask Gemini questions about the details of, say, a restaurant menu. Other use cases include advice on placing shelves on the wall (and maybe asking Gemini to help you find a tool to put down somewhere), getting directions to the grocery store and summarizing group conversations while on the go.
Thanks to advances in technology, AR glasses look like regular glasses these days, as we’ve seen from the likes of Meta and Snap. That should help Google avoid all the “Glass-holes” talk this time around because there shouldn’t be an obvious front-attached camera. But the development may give cause for concern when it comes to privacy and alert those caught in the camera’s corner of view that they may be being recorded.
Privacy is an important consideration for Android XR. Google says it’s building new Gemini privacy controls into the platform. More information about those will be revealed next year.
Meanwhile, games can play a big role in the success of Android XR. Focused on Meta’s Quest headsets, of course. On the heels of its various missteps with Stadia, Google hopes to make it as easy as possible for developers to submit their games to its ecosystem.
Not only that, Unity is one of the companies supporting Android XR. Developers will be able to create an experience using the engine. Unity says it will provide full support for Android XR, including documentation and configuration to help devs get started. They can do that now in public testing versions of Unity 6.
Solving games (Demeo) and Google’s Owlchemy Labs (Job Simulator) are among the studios planning to bring titles built with Unity to Android XR. The process is said to be straightforward. “This is as simple a port as you’ll ever come across,” Owlchemy Labs CEO Andrew Eiche said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Unity has teamed up with Google and film director Doug Liman’s studio 30 Ninjas to create “a new and innovative film application that will combine AI and XR to redefine the cinematic experience.”
With games set to play a big role in Android XR, it’s only fitting that handheld controllers will still be part of the ecosystem. Not many people will want to play games using their voice.
But that’s the key: Android XR is shaping up to be a system for a wide range of devices, not just one. This strategy has paid dividends for Google, given the wide variety of phones, tablets, cars and TVs on which Android variants are available. It will hope to repeat that success with Android XR.
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