Google Unveils Enhanced Preview of Android XR Development Tools

Okay, so get this—Google’s doing a thing with Android XR again, right? They just dropped this second Developer Preview. Honestly, they’ve been tinkering with it since last year, but now they’re like, “Hey, check out these upgrades!” So what’s the big deal? New features, like they’re going all in on immersive video and this fancy hand-tracking for ARCore. It’s a whole vibe.

During Google I/O, which sounds like a great excuse for tech nerds to gather and geek out, they spilled the beans about these updates. They want devs to use the Android XR SDK to spin up apps that play nice with headsets or even port regular Android apps over. Pretty neat, I guess? Anyway—wait, where was I? Oh yeah, they’re throwing in 180° and 360° video support using this MV-HEVC format. Why? Beats me, but apparently it’s great for 3D video or something.

Plus, they got Jetpack Compose for XR (whatever that means). Some mumbo jumbo about adaptive UI layouts—using SubspaceModifier and SpatialExternal… something. Not gonna lie, half of this tech lingo goes over my head, but Google’s all about making UI stuff seamless across gadgets. I suppose that’s cool.

Oh, and let’s not forget about hand-tracking upgrades! They’ve mapped out like 26 joints so you can do stuff with gestures. So much for the good ol’ swipe and tap life, right? And then there’s this Material Design for XR thing—Google’s pushing it hard. Maybe one day we’ll all be living in XR worlds or something. It’s a bit sci-fi, if you ask me.

Most devs out there don’t even have the gear to test all this cool XR stuff yet, ’cause apparently Google’s got some secret headsets up their sleeves with Samsung and XREAL. I saw a pic of the Samsung Project Moohan—looks fancy but who’s seen it in real life? No one I know. Luckily, they improved their Android XR Emulator—props for making it more stable or whatever.

Unity, the game engine folks, are throwing their hat in the ring too. They’ve got their own updates with dynamic refresh and other technical stuff. If you’re a dev, this might mean something to you. Personally, I just like things to work when I click a button.

And here’s a twist—not everything happened at Google I/O! Surprise, right? Google’s teasing about XR smart glasses with partners like Warby Parker. Could we all be wearing smart glasses soon? Ah, who knows. But they hinted at glasses that sound like Ray-Ban Meta knockoffs, for reading and stuff. Also, they’ve released Unity samples, showing off hand-tracking and whatever “passthrough” is supposed to be.

So yeah, Google’s been busy, upping their XR game. If you feel like diving into the nitty-gritty, check out their site for more geeky details. I might just stick to regular glasses and YouTube videos for now.