The Android Show: XR Edition
Google announced today that the Android XR Edition will be arriving in 2026. The tech giant teased the possibilities of immersive experiences, envisioning a world where every game, YouTube video, and website is immersive.
While other platforms like visionOS and Pico OS allow users to easily convert 2D photos into 3D, Google’s Android XR is currently the only platform for headsets that offers the same capability for videos. The XR2+ Gen 2 chipset powering Android XR is able to handle real-time spatialization, a feature also found in Viture virtual monitor glasses.
Google claims that the autospatialization feature will work with “pretty much any” app and can be used across multiple apps simultaneously. During the presentation, the feature was demonstrated while playing Cities: Skylines streamed from a PC, showcasing the AI system’s ability to distinguish between the foreground UI and the background game world.
When Android XR launches for Samsung Galaxy XR next year, we look forward to testing out this innovative feature.
Samsung Galaxy XR’s Android XR now has a Persona-like realistic avatar system for video calls, called Likeness, as well as a Travel Mode and a built-in remote desktop app.
