The announcement is a bit lacking in detail. What are they actually announcing here beyond doing something related to XR?
I talked to some IOS developers recently doing an app with some AR features. They were doing things with lidar and indoor maps on the iphone. I asked them if they were working on an Android version as well (I have a pixel 6 phone) and they told me that they tried but that the Android APIs are a bit limited for the types of things they were trying to do. Also, there don't seem to be a lot of Android phones with lidar.
It seems Google does have some catching up to do here.
Google are launching a version of Android specifically tailored for XR applications. A preview version of the SDK is available now. The first hardware is expected to launch later this year, with devices announced by Samsung and Sony.
Google have paid HTC $250m in exchange for technology licensing and an unspecified number of staff. It's a deal that's vaguely reminiscent of the 2017 deal, which saw Google acquihire around 2,000 HTC staff who had been involved in hardware development on Pixel. Google have been working on their own XR hardware under Project Astra, but it's unclear if there's a firm plan to bring that to market.
The announcement is similar to Google acquired Android Inc, which helps them join smart phone war. Or acquire nest for smart home Eco-system. I guess they want to accelerate the development of Android XR.
Comments
The announcement is a bit lacking in detail. What are they actually announcing here beyond doing something related to XR?
I talked to some IOS developers recently doing an app with some AR features. They were doing things with lidar and indoor maps on the iphone. I asked them if they were working on an Android version as well (I have a pixel 6 phone) and they told me that they tried but that the Android APIs are a bit limited for the types of things they were trying to do. Also, there don't seem to be a lot of Android phones with lidar.
It seems Google does have some catching up to do here.
Google are launching a version of Android specifically tailored for XR applications. A preview version of the SDK is available now. The first hardware is expected to launch later this year, with devices announced by Samsung and Sony.
Google have paid HTC $250m in exchange for technology licensing and an unspecified number of staff. It's a deal that's vaguely reminiscent of the 2017 deal, which saw Google acquihire around 2,000 HTC staff who had been involved in hardware development on Pixel. Google have been working on their own XR hardware under Project Astra, but it's unclear if there's a firm plan to bring that to market.
https://developer.android.com/xr
https://www.vive.com/us/newsroom/2025-01-23/
Qualcomm is also telling devs who have been targeting the Spaces SDK to move to Android XR
The Visor is also coming out this year and the fan base believes they will eventually target Android XR (currently they target Spaces)
The announcement is similar to Google acquired Android Inc, which helps them join smart phone war. Or acquire nest for smart home Eco-system. I guess they want to accelerate the development of Android XR.