Google’s future of AI looks like it’s going through glasses and we should know more as soon as next week. A little tease by Android head Sameer Samat, where he put on a pair of smart glasses at the end of Google’s Android 16 showcase this week, pointed toward more to come at the company’s AI-focused IO developer conference next week. The glasses are part of Android XR, Google’s upcoming platform for VR, AR and AI on glasses and headsets. But what should we expect, and what do we think this really is all about? Let’s recap what we already know.
Android XR is Google’s return to an AR/VR space it left years ago when it had Google Daydream. I demoed Android XR and spoke to the platform heads last December, where it became clearer that this new initiative is very AI-focused: Gemini’s presence on XR devices is what Google sees as the platform’s unique advantage over what Meta and Apple offer. Android XR is also cross-compatible with Google Play, too.
Android XR comes in two flavors so far: a mixed reality VR headset made by Samsung called Project Moohan, and an assortment of smart glasses made by Google (and, it looks like, Samsung, Xreal and others to come). Moohan is very much a headset similar to Apple’s Vision Pro, with a high-res display and passthrough cameras that seem to blend the virtual and real, and runs 2D apps that float onscreen. The glasses come with and without displays, and have always-on AI modes that can see and hear what you’re looking at and saying.
Gemini Live can look at your world, or the apps on-screen, and analyze and describe (or even remember) what you’re seeing. That vision-enabled generative AI is exactly what Meta’s exploring as well on its glasses and on devices to come, and Apple is likely to enter that space too in next-gen versions of Apple Intelligence on Vision Pro.
Project Moohan could be revealed in more detail at Google I/O but it also may come later this year. Samsung and Google said the hardware’s release date is sometime in 2025 but it’s still unknown whether it’s really more of a developer kit than a consumer product. Meanwhile, Google’s glasses efforts look to be next on deck, perhaps readying for release in 2026 instead of 2025.
Google’s likely to get into much more detail now about how AI tools could work on these headsets and glasses. A developer-focused Android XR event last December began making preview software available but it’s time to get even more proactive about how existing Gemini tools on phones, tablets and elsewhere could run on XR and how these could dovetail.
Google’s deep sets of AI features across all its products could make Android XR a lot more intriguing than anything Meta’s shown off so far on Ray-Bans but that also depends on how much Google makes available. We’ll know more soon, but Google’s presence in the XR race should make the next wave of headsets and glasses a lot more competitive and interesting for sure.
