GoKawiilAdamya Sharma / Android Authority
Google made plenty of announcements at the Android Show last week, but none captured my attention more than Android XR. The company formalized a roadmap I’ve been waiting for, designed to bring Android XR beyond clunky AR-style goggles into the world of something people actually want to wear.
Samsung’s Galaxy XR headset works well, and I enjoyed my time testing it, but there’s no way I’d want to wear a heavy headset for more than a few minutes at a time. It’s also expensive and limited to niche uses — it’s not a vehicle to bring Android XR into the mainstream.
Google’s plan for future glasses looks to fix that. We should see demos of Google’s vision for lighter, more practical XR glasses at Google I/O on May 19 — and I couldn’t be more excited.
Would you wear Google's XR glasses? 10 votes Absolutely, I'm looking forward to the future. 100 % Not way, I'd look ridiculous. 0 %
Smart glasses just need to be more practical
I was always excited about AR glasses, but the technology had to catch up. As a lifelong glasses-wearer, it’s long been a dream to have an overlay inside the lens. Products like the Samsung Galaxy XR glasses are fine, but I don’t want to be tethered to my couch or desk, let alone a large battery pack. I also don’t want to look at the world through a video projection, and mixed reality goggles give me a headache after short periods.
Larger headsets may include more functionality, but I want something I can wear daily. Upcoming devices from Google and Samsung have partnered with legitimate eyeglass brands, hoping to provide something that looks less hideous on your face. The Ray-Ban Meta proved you could have a useful set of eyeglasses that look like conventional specs.
Google is in a much better position to take another swing at smart glasses because the ecosystem is in place this time.
Price is also a significant factor. Spending several hundred dollars isn’t exactly an impulse buy, but it’s easier to make that leap than to spend almost $2,000 on the Galaxy XR headset. It’s still a decent chunk out of your wallet, but the price isn’t drastically higher than what you’d normally pay for a decent pair of traditional lenses.
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