Samsung isn’t sharing a lot of details on its newly announced Android XR headset, but it has confirmed two key things that existing VR enthusiasts and developers are sure to be happy about.
Samsung’s ‘Project Moohan’ headset will be the first to ship with Android XR next year.
And though our hands-on with the headset exclusively used hand-tracking and eye-tracking input, the company says it’s also making first-party motion controllers which will be natively supported as part of Android XR.
That’s important because it means thousands of existing VR applications which rely on motion controllers could be ported to Android XR without completely altering their fundamental game design. Vision Pro, on the other hand, doesn’t support motion controllers, which means the vast majority of the most popular VR content to date doesn’t have a straightforward path to working on Apple’s XR platform.
Samsung hasn’t shared any real details about the Project Moohan controllers yet, except to say that they will be ready in time for the headset’s release in 2025. As of now, it’s undecided if they will be included in the box with every Project Moohan headset, or sold as an add-on accessory.
Also important for existing VR content: both Samsung and Google have confirmed Android XR will support PC VR streaming, of some kind, on Project Moohan (and future headsets).
That means users will be able to choose to stream PC VR content from a gaming PC to their headset, unlocking the large library of VR content through SteamVR, which often means better graphics and broader modding support.
While this is confirmed, details here are slim too. It’s unclear if “support” for this feature means that Android XR will have a built-in PC VR streaming capability (like Quest does), or if it just means Google is committed to allowing third-party PC VR streaming apps on the platform.
It looks to be leaning toward the latter. One of the best known third-party PC VR streaming apps, Virtual Desktop, is already confirmed to be in development for Android XR.
For more details on Android XR generally, check out the announcement article and our hands-on with Samsung’s headset.
