Google Unveils Latest Preview of Android XR Development Tools

Alright, folks, strap in. Got some news about Google’s latest tech bits—no idea why anyone else finds this riveting, but hey, here we are. So, Google just tossed the second Developer Preview of its Android XR SDK our way. The first one came out last year if you happened to miss that boat. Now there’s jazz about new features like better video, UI tweaks, and hand-tracking. Fun, right?

Announced at Google I/O—don’t ask me what that stands for, probably something techy—these updates are all about giving devs (short for developers, but you knew that, right?) better tools. More tools! Who doesn’t love a good toolbox? Makes it easier to mess around with XR apps. Oh and “headsets”—guess it’s like strapping a phone to your face but cooler.

Now they’ve got support for these crazy 180° and 360° videos—never could get them to work right myself. But hey, with MV-HEVC codec (sounds like a robot name), you get better 3D vids. Yay technology!

Jetpack Compose, which sounds like a space thing but it’s really for UI design, joined the party too. It’s like making sure your app doesn’t look like a hot mess on different gadgets. Mods like SubspaceModifier and SpatialSomethingOrOther are in there too.

But wait, there’s hand-tracking! Yeah, ARCore for Jetpack XR decided to play with hands—26 posed joints. Something about gestures. All I know is you can now wiggle your fingers in front of a screen for fun, and it does… stuff? There are guides and samples, if you’re into that.

Material Design is expanding too. It’s all about apps looking good on super big screens, or maybe I’m missing something here. Big screens, little screens—doesn’t matter, they just want pretty apps.

And then there’s this whole broken puzzle about developers not having those cool Android XR headsets yet. But, never fear, emulator’s here. Samsung’s doing something called Project Moohan and AR glasses under XREAL Project Aura. Sounds sci-fi, but humans will probably have to wait a bit longer to wear ‘em.

Oh, nearly forgot. Now there’s this Emulator business with better AMD GPU support—whatever that means—and tighter whatnots in Android Studio. Something about stability and testing apps. You devs out there probably get it.

Now Unity, that big game engine thingy, has more toys in its chest too. OpenXR Pre-Release Version 2, featuring… wait for it… Dynamic Refresh Rate and SpaceWarp. Unity’s got some new Mixed Reality template tricks like hand mesh occlusion. I think that’s computer magic for making fingers look right?

Also, if you’re dabbling in Unity, there are sample apps or features for hand tracking, plane tracking, and other detective-like activities for apps—seems these samples want to hold your hand as you create your own XR apps.

And just so you’re aware, Android XR wasn’t the center-of-the-universe at this year’s Google I/O—can’t please everyone, I guess. They’re pushing it to more gadgets, even tossing XR glasses our way from Warby Parker and Gentle Monster. Google’s got two glasses versions planned. One’s like those Ray-Bans you’ve seen (or not, I don’t know your life), and another’s got display boards for basic tasks like reading or watching cat videos or whatever it is you do.

Anyway, if you want to dig into this further—don’t say I didn’t give you a heads-up—you can find all the details about Android XR Developer Preview and whatnot out there somewhere in the digital ether. Good luck!