Welcome to Lowpass! This week: Google’s Android XR is here, and YouTube is killing it on TVs.

Google unveils Android XR, teases Samsung headset

Google is officially back in the world of AR and VR: The company unveiled its Android XR platform Thursday, which allows developers to build Android apps for VR and mixed reality headsets as well as AR glasses. Google also gave the world a first look at Project Moohan, an upcoming mixed reality headset from Samsung that is based on Android XR and is expected to be released some time in 2025.

A lot is still unknown about Samsung’s headset, subsequent devices from other partners and even Android XR itself. For starters, what will Project Moohan cost? Will it be positioned to compete with the Apple Vision Pro, or Meta’s Quest devices? When will we see the first Android XR glasses? And will Google be content with Android XR powering third-party hardware, or will the company eventually make its own devices as well?

Google’s announcement didn’t go into any of these details. However, between the lines, it did give us some clues of how the company plans to approach the space, and how it plans to compete with Apple and Meta.

Android XR in a nutshell. As the name suggests, Android XR is an extension of Google’s Android ecosystem into the AR and VR space. The OS will “first launch on headsets,” according to a blog post penned by the company’s XR VP & GM Shahram Izadi, and Samsung’s headset will be first in line to run Android XR.

Android XR devices will run Google’s Play Store, and the company plans to bring most Android apps from Google Play to headsets right away. Developers will also be able to use a range of tools, including Unity, OpenXR and WebXR to build immersive apps and web experiences.

Google has also begun to build immersive versions of some of its own apps, including Chrome, YouTube, Google TV and Google Photos and Google Maps. Apps will be usable in a mixed reality environment similar to what Apple Vision Pro and Meta Quest 3 offer users.

Finally, Android XR will be closely integrated with Google’s Gemini Assistant. Google promises that you will be able to ask Gemini about anything in your field of view, and even do circle to search – a gesture-based way of searching for things that first launched on Android phones earlier this year.

What we know about Project Moohan. Samsung’s Android XR headset has been subject to much speculation, and apparently multiple delays. The two companies first announced their partnership in early 2023, but reportedly delayed the release following Apple’s Vision Pro announcement. There were some suggestions that Samsung and Google aimed for a release late this year, but now we’ll have to wait until an unspecified date in 2025 for Project Moohan.

The headset itself, pictured above, is being described as a device designed to “transform how you watch, work and explore.” Notice something that’s missing from that description? That’s right, Google didn’t put a big emphasis on gaming in Thursday’s announcements, suggesting that the device will be positioned as a Vision Pro competitor rather than a Quest-like VR gaming machine.

An Android XR developer blog post does include a mention of Vacation Simulator, a game developed by Google-owned Owlchemy Labs. It’s worth noting that Owlchemy’s CEO Andrew Eiche is a big proponent of hand tracking for VR gaming, and Google’s announcement this week explicitly mentions hand tracking as well as keyboards and mice as input modalities for Android XR. VR controllers aren’t mentioned once, suggesting at least the possibility that Samsung could follow Apple’s lead and ship its headset without them.

What other devices will run Android XR. Google’s announcement mentions partnerships with Lynx, Sony and XREAL, but doesn’t specify how those companies will use Android XR. Also included is a vague mention of Magic Leap, which has reportedly moved away from making its own hardware.

Perhaps most intriguingly, Android XR is also meant to power future AR glasses. Google has been teasing such glasses for years, and just this week announced an update to Project Astra, its multimodal AI assistant optimized for AR. The company showed a phone-based version of Project Astra to some reporters, and also released another video that includes a teaser of an AR glasses prototype.

In a series of additional videos released Thursday, Google showed off what it eventually wants its AR glasses to be capable of, including live translation of signage, walking directions, step-by-step instructions for DIY projects and real-world search, as in: Where did I leave that thing?

Google plans to test prototype AR glasses with a small group of users in the coming months, but it’s still unclear when this will turn into an actual product, or whether Google has any plans to manufacture such glasses itself. 

What is clear is that some of the functionality shown off by Google will require some significant trade-offs. In order for Astra to find objects you may have replaced around the house, it may have to ingest large amounts of imagery, which could quickly drain its battery.

Perhaps as a nod to those power regle appears to be ready to compromise on the display front: All of the videos released this week appear to show monocular AR glasses, with a display embedded in the right lens, while the left lens remains see-through.

What all of this means. Google has had a couple of false starts in AR and VR, including Google Glass and Daydream. With Android XR, the company aims to reintroduce itself as a platform operator, and unify the many disparate Android-based AR and VR hardware efforts that are already underway from a variety of manufacturers.

It also wants to have a horse in the race when it comes to a post-phone future, in which AR glasses and other wearables will work with powerful AI assistants to help us with everyday tasks. And while Google’s initial efforts lean heavily on Samsung as a hardware partner, I wouldn’t be too surprised to eventually see first-party XR hardware from the company as well, in line with how it has been operating in the phone, TV d wearable space.

Of course, having a platform alone doesn’t guarantee that consumers will buy the devices running said platform. I’m skeptical about the nearterm chances of a headset that tries to be too much like the Vision Pro without also embracing the use cases consumers are actually interested in, including gaming and fitness. Then again, Meta does have a sizable head start in VR gaming, so Google may have just decided to focus on work and other emerging use cases for the time being. 

Which brings me to my biggest question: How exactly is Google planning to take on Meta? Both companies now have an XR OS they plan to license to hardware partners, which is poised to cause friction. Remarks from Meta execs suggest that Google has been using the spectre of Android fragmentation to get device makers to embrace Android XR. When it did the same in the smart TV space, it led to serious complications for Amazon’s Fire TV business, and even an antitrust investigation in India.

Whatever Google’s ultimate path may be, it’s clear that the race for the future of computing just got a lot more competitive.

YouTube is a TV juggernaut

YouTube released some updated data on the usage of its service on TVs, and let’s just say it’s no surprise that Netflix keeps mentioning YouTube as one of its biggest competitors:

• YouTube viewers streamed more than one billion hours of video on their TVs every single day day in 2024.

• Viewing time of sports content on TVs grew 30 percent year-over-year.

• YouTube viewers also watched over 400 million hours hours of podcasts per month on TVs.

• The amount of 4K content uploaded to YouTube grew by 35 percent year-over year, if you exclude YouTube Shorts uploads.

YouTube also claims that the number of creators who make the majority of their YouTube revenue with TV-based viewing grew 30% year-over-year, but didn’t offer any absolute numbers.

What else

As AI voices become more human, will stereotypes follow? I wrote about the complex issues around race and gender that come with human-sounding AI voices in my latest story for Fast Company.

Meta’s Ray-Bans are getting some competition. The $299 Solos’ AirGo Vision smart glasses plug into ChatGPT for AI assistance.

SiriusXM is looking to cut $200 million in costs. The radio service plans to refocus its efforts on retaining its in-car subscribers, because that whole streaming thing clearly is just a fad …

YouTube expands auto-dubbing. The video site now enables hundreds of thousands of channels to offer AI-dubbed versions of their videos in multiple languages.

The Oscars are embracing streaming. The Academy Awards will be live streamed for the first time, allowing viewers to follow the action on Hulu.

Apple has teamed up with Sony for VR controllers. The goal of the partnership is to allow Apple Vision Pro owners to use Sony’s PlayStation VR2 controllers, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.

A first look at using Sora. MKBHD did a great review of OpenAI’s newly-released video generator Sora.

That’s it

Asking or a friend: Is December 12 too late to start an advent calendar for your kids? 😐

Thanks for reading, have a great weekend!