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Teased at Google I/O, Project Aura is a collaboration between Xreal and Google. It’s the second Android XR device (the first being Samsung’s Galaxy XR headset) and is expected to launch in 2026. Putting it on, I get why the term “smart glasses” doesn’t exactly fit.
Is it a headset? Smart glasses? Both? Those were the questions running through my head as I held Project Aura in my hands in a recent demo. It looked like a pair of chunky sunglasses, except for the cord dangling off the left side, leading down to a battery pack that also served as a trackpad. When I asked, Google’s reps told me they consider it a headset masquerading as glasses. They have a term for it, too: wired XR glasses.
I can connect wirelessly to a laptop and create a giant virtual desktop in my space. I have up to a 70-degree field of view. My first task is to launch Lightroom on the virtual desktop while opening YouTube in another window. I play a 3D tabletop game where I can pinch and pull the board to zoom in and out. I look at a painting on the wall and summon Circle to Search. Gemini tells me the name of the artwork and the artist.
I’ve done all of this before in the Vision Pro and Galaxy XR. This time, my head isn’t stuffed into a bulky headset. If I wore this in public, most people wouldn’t notice. But this isn’t augmented reality, which overlays digital information over the real world. It’s much more like using a Galaxy XR, where you see apps in front of you and your surroundings.
A Google representative told me everything I tried on Project Aura had originally been developed for Galaxy XR. None of the apps, features, or experiences had to be remade for Project Aura’s form factor. That’s huge.
XR has a major app problem. Take the Meta Ray-Ban Display and the Vision Pro. Both launched with few third-party apps, giving consumers little reason to wear them. Developers also have to pick and choose which of these gadgets they’ll invest in making apps for. That leaves little room for smaller companies with big ideas to compete or experiment.
That’s what makes Android XR fascinating. Smaller players, like Xreal, can access apps developed for Samsung’s headset. Android apps will also work on the AI glasses launching next year from Warby Parker and Gentle Monster.
“I think this is probably the best thing for all the developers. You just don’t see any fragmentation anymore. And I do believe there will be more and more devices converging together. That’s the whole point of Android XR,” says Xreal CEO Chi Xu.
This is a pair of Google’s AI glasses prototypes from Google I/O. The version I tried last week looked similar. Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
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