Google's latest push into extended reality is taking shape. While the company is not completely ready to show off any products yet, it has presented a vision for a unified Android XR ecosystem that will span a variety of devices such as virtual reality headsets and mixed reality glasses.
Evidently, this is Alphabet's latest attempt to compete with companies like Meta and Apple on the extended reality front. The company has ventured into this field in the past with programs like Daydream and , which have hit the market. . Android
Google has been working on XR behind the scenes despite shutting down some of its highest-profile projects in that space. “Google is no stranger to this category,” Sameer Samat, president of Google's Android ecosystem, told reporters ahead of the announcement. “We, like many others, have made some attempts here before. I think the vision was right, but the technology wasn't ready yet.”
One area where Google believes the technology has advanced to the point where it is ready to try again with XR is artificial intelligence. will be deeply integrated into Android XR. By harnessing the power of the chatbot and having a user interface based on voice and natural conversation, Google and its partners aim to offer experiences that are not exactly possible to achieve through gestures and controllers.
“We are fully in what we call the Gemini Age, and advances in ai with multimodal models are giving us all totally new ways to interact with computers,” Samat said. “We believe that a digital assistant integrated with your XR experience is the best application for the form factor, like email or text messaging was for the smartphone.”
Google believes that smart glasses and headphones are a more natural form factor for exploring this technology, rather than holding your smartphone up to something in the world that you want Gemini to take a look at. To that end, the wide range of XR devices that are appearing, such as VR headsets with step-through (the ability to see the outside world while wearing one) is another factor in Google's push in that space.
Next year we'll get our first look at Android XR products, including one that. The first headset, currently called Project Moohan (which means “infinity” in Korean), will feature “state-of-the-art displays,” natural multi-modal pass-through and input, according to Samsung. It is intended to be a lightweight headset and ergonomically designed to maximize comfort.
Renderings of the Moohan prototype (pictured above) suggest the headphones will look a bit like the Apple Vision Pro, perhaps with a glass visor on the front. In addition to headphones, Samsung is working on Google XR glasses, with more details coming soon.
But nailing the hardware won't matter much if you can't do anything interesting with it. Therefore, Google now searches to create apps and products for Android XR. The company offers developers APIs, an emulator, and hardware development kits to help them create XR experiences.
For its part, Google promises an “infinite desktop” for those who use the platform for productive purposes. Its core applications are also being reinvented for extended reality. These include Chrome, Photos, Meet, Maps (with an immersive view of landmarks), and Google Play. On top of that, Google Play mobile and tablet apps are said to work out of the box.
On YouTube, it looks like you'll be able to easily transition from augmented reality to a virtual reality experience. And on Google TV, you'll be able to switch from an AR view to a virtual home theater when you start a movie.
A demo video showed a headset user using a combination of their voice and a physical keyboard and mouse to navigate a series of Chrome windows. Circle to Search will be one of many features. After you've used the tool to search for something, you can use a Gemini command to refine the results. It will be possible to extract 3D image representations from image search results and manipulate them with gestures.
As for the AR glasses, essentially next-generation Google Glass, it looks like you'll be able to use them to translate signs and speech and then ask Gemini questions about the details of, say, a restaurant menu. Other use cases include tips on putting shelves on a wall (and maybe asking Gemini to help you find a tool you left somewhere), getting directions to a store, and summarizing group chats while you're on the go.
Thanks to advances in technology, AR glasses look a lot like regular glasses today, as we've seen from companies like Meta and Snap. This should help Google avoid the whole “glass holes” talk this time around, since there shouldn't be an obscenely obvious camera attached to the front. But the developments could be a cause for concern when it comes to privacy and allowing those caught in the camera's cone of vision to know they may be being filmed.
Privacy is an important consideration for Android XR. Google says it is creating new privacy controls for Gemini on the platform. More details about them will be revealed next year.
Meanwhile, gaming could play a big factor in Android XR's success. Of course, they are the focus of the Meta's Quest headphones. Immediately after its launch, Google hopes to make it as easy as possible for developers to port their games to its ecosystem.
Not only that, Unity is one of the companies that supports Android XR. Developers will be able to create experiences using the engine. Unity says it will offer full support for Android XR, including documentation and optimizations to help developers get started. You can do this now in public experimental builds of Unity 6.
Resolution games (Demeo) and Google's own Owlchemy Labs (Work Simulator) are among the studios planning to bring titles created in Unity to Android XR. The process is said to be simple. “This is the simplest port you will ever find,” Owlchemy Labs CEO Andrew Eiche said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Unity has teamed up with Google and filmmaker Doug Liman's 30 Ninjas studio to create an “innovative new immersive cinema app that will combine ai and XR to redefine the movie experience.”
Since gaming will play a big role in Android XR, it stands to reason that physical controllers will still be part of the ecosystem. Not many people will want to play using their voice.
But that's the key: Android XR is shaping up to be a broad ecosystem of devices, not just one. This strategy has paid dividends for Google, given the spectrum of phones, tablets, cars and televisions on which Android variants are available. It will hope to replicate that success with Android XR.
