Google Unveils New Preview of Android XR Development Tools

Okay, right, so Google’s been busy. They’ve dropped another Developer Preview for their Android XR SDK. I can’t keep up with these things, seriously. Anyway, this time it’s bringing all kinds of goodies — I’m talking better support for those immersive videos that make you feel like you’re actually somewhere else. Remember those videos where you can look around 360 degrees? Yeah, they are apparently smoother now, thanks to some MV-HEVC format. Don’t even ask me what it stands for.

And they didn’t stop there. They’ve included Jetpack Compose for XR, which sounds like some kind of space shuttle if you ask me. It’s supposed to help with UI layouts on XR devices. SubspaceModifier, SpatialExternalSurface — those aren’t spells from a magic school, but they sure sound like it.

Now, here comes something exciting: hand-tracking with ARCore for Jetpack. Who isn’t fascinated by the idea of waving your hand and making things happen? Imagine Jedi mind tricks, but with your fingers.

Here’s an image of something — I didn’t really notice, but some folks might find it intriguing. Google’s expanding what they’re calling Material Design for XR. It’s like they want apps to just morph comfortably into the whole XR universe. Maybe they do.

Oh, what’s a bit tricky here is that many developers don’t have these advanced Android XR headsets yet. You know, like that Samsung Project Moohan and whatever AR glasses XREAL Project Aura are. Still, they push on with an Android XR Emulator — imagine playing with something without actually having it. Frustrating? Maybe.

And hey, dig this — Unity, which seems like everyone uses it for XR stuff, is ramping things up with something called Dynamic Refresh Rate. Again, no idea, but it’s to do with performance. Something about Shader Graph — this sounds technical.

Plus, Android XR Samples for Unity are now a thing. They showcase hand tracking, plane tracking, face tracking — basically trying to turn you into a human Swiss Army knife of motion capture.

Look, Android XR may not have stolen the spotlight at this year’s Google I/O. But Google is definitely moving on with more partner devices and even their XR smart glasses. These glasses, it seems, aim to hang with the likes of Ray-Ban Meta Glasses for style points. Apparently, they’ll handle simple tasks like reading, photo-viewing, etc. Yeah, not groundbreaking, but kind of nifty.

Alright, if you’re intrigued or just love details, dig deeper into this XR Developer Preview thingy. They’ve got all kinds of technical bits for those who enjoy pretending they’re rocket scientists.