Google is rolling out its vision for the Android XR ecosystem

Google’s latest push into extended reality is starting to take shape. Although the company isn’t quite ready to showcase any products yet, it has Developed a vision For a unified Android XR ecosystem that will cover a range of devices – such as virtual reality headsets and mixed reality glasses – In partnership with Samsung and Qualcomm.

This is clearly Alphabet’s latest attempt to compete with the likes of Meta and Apple on the extended reality front. The company has dabbled in this space in the past with the likes of google glassdaydreaming and google cardboardprograms that have found their way into Google Cemetery. Android XR looks more ambitious, and the presence of some big-name partners suggests that Alphabet is more serious about extended reality this time around.

Google has been moving away from XR behind the scenes despite shutting down some of its high-profile projects in this area. “Google is no stranger to this category,” Samir Samat, head of the Android ecosystem at Google, told reporters before the announcement. “We, like many others, had made some attempts here before. I think the vision was right, but the technology wasn’t quite ready.”

One area where Google believes the technology has advanced to the point where it’s ready to try again with XR is artificial intelligence. twin It will be deeply integrated into Android XR. By leveraging the power of a chatbot and having a user interface based on voice and natural conversation, Google and its partners aim to deliver experiences that aren’t quite possible with gestures and controllers.

“We are living in what we refer to as the Gemini Age, and breakthroughs in artificial intelligence using multimodal models are giving us all completely new ways of interacting with computers,” Samat said. “We believe a digital assistant integrated with your XR experience is the killer app for a form factor, like email or text messaging for a smartphone.”

Google believes that smart glasses and headphones are a more natural form factor for exploring this technology, rather than tethering your smartphone to something in the world that you want Gemini to take a look at. To that end, the wide range of XR devices that have emerged, such as VR headsets with passthrough (the ability to see the outside world while wearing one) is another factor in Google’s push into this space.

We’ll get our first real look at Android XR products next year, including this one Google is developing in partnership with Samsung. The first speaker, currently dubbed Project Moohan (which means “infinity” in Korean), will have “advanced displays,” and natural and multimedia inputs, according to Samsung. It is set to be a lightweight headphone that is ergonomically designed for maximum comfort.

Images of Moohan’s prototype (pictured above) suggest that the headset will look like the Apple Vision Pro, perhaps with a glass visor on the front. Alongside the headset, Samsung is working on Google Glass XR, with more details coming soon.

But installing hardware won’t matter much if you can’t do anything interesting with it. As such, Google is now looking to Bring developers into the fold To create apps and products for Android XR. The company offers developers application programming interfaces (APIs), an emulator, and hardware development tools to help them build XR experiences.

For its part, Google promises an “infinite desktop” for those who use the platform for productivity. Its fundamental applications for extended reality are also being reimagined. This includes Chrome, Photos, Meet, Maps (with an immersive view of landmarks), and Google Play. Moreover, Google Play’s mobile and tablet apps are said to work out of the box.

On YouTube, it seems like you’ll be able to easily transition from an augmented reality to a virtual reality experience. On Google TV, you’ll be able to switch from an augmented reality view to a virtual home movie theater when you start playing a movie.

A demo video showed the headset wearer using a combination of his voice, a physical keyboard, and a mouse to navigate through a series of Chrome windows. The search circle will be one of the many features. After you use the tool to search for something, you can use the Gemini command to refine the results. It will be possible to pull 3D image views from image search results and manipulate them with gestures.

As for the augmented reality glasses — the next generation of Google Glass — it looks like you’ll be able to use them to translate signs and speech, and then ask Gemini questions about restaurant menu details, for example. Other use cases include advice on how to place shelves on a wall (and maybe ask Gemini to help you find a gadget to put somewhere), getting directions to a store and summarizing group chats as you go.

Thanks to advancements in technology, augmented reality glasses look a lot like regular glasses these days, as we’ve seen from the likes of dead And the snap. That should help Google avoid the whole “glass holes” rhetoric this time around since there doesn’t have to be an obscenely obvious camera attached to the front. But the developments may raise concerns when it comes to privacy and letting those caught in the camera’s cone of vision know they may be being photographed.

Privacy is an important consideration for Android XR. Google says it’s working on creating new privacy controls for Gemini on the platform. More details about those will be revealed next year.

Meanwhile, gaming could play a major role in Android XR’s success. It’s the focus of Meta’s Quest headsets, of course. In its wake Various errors with StadiaGoogle hopes to make it as easy as possible for developers to port their games into its ecosystem.

Not only that, Unity is one of the companies supporting Android XR. Developers will be able to create experiences for it using the engine. Unity says it will provide full support for Android XR, including documentation and improvements to help developers get started. They can do this now in public betas of Unity 6.

Decision games (Demeo) and Google’s Owlchemy Labs (Job simulator) is among the studios planning to bring titles built in Unity to Android XR. The process is said to be straightforward. “This port is as simple as you’ll ever encounter one before,” Andrew Eich, CEO of Owlchemy Labs, 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 movie app that combines AI and XR to redefine the cinematic experience.”

Since gaming is set to play a big role in Android XR, it makes sense for physical controllers to remain part of the ecosystem. Not many people will want to play games using their voice.

But here’s the key: Android XR is shaping up to be a broad ecosystem of devices, not just one. This strategy has paid off well for Google, given the range of phones, tablets, cars, and TVs on which different versions of Android are available. It is hoped that this success will be repeated with Android XR.