Android XR is a brand new operating system specifically for VR/AR devices

In 2008, Google announced the commercial launch of the Android operating system and the first Android phone, the T-Mobile G1 (aka the HTC Dream). During this launch event, Google made it clear that it intended to unite the messy smartphone industry. Instead of iOS (then known as iPhone OS) competing with Windows Phone, Symbian, BlackBerry OS, Palm OS, etc., Google hoped everyone would unite behind Android. Here we are, 16 years later, and it worked.

Now, Google is hoping for a repeat in the virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR) spaces. Today, the company has unveiled Android XR, a brand new operating system designed to power the XR devices of the future. This includes (but is not limited to) VR headsets, AR glasses, and more.

If Google launching AR software to power headsets sounds familiar, you’re right: In 2012, Google revealed the existence of Google Glass, a way-ahead-of-its-time product consisting of a glasses-like headset that projected images over what the wearer saw in the real world. Glass and the Glass OS software powering it were a failure for many reasons, but the core idea of the product was sound. In fact, the recent success of Ray-Ban Meta glasses — essentially just a modern recreation of Google Glass — proves that Google was onto something back in 2012. It just didn’t execute the idea properly.

With Android XR, Google is ready to try again. This time, it will be doing what it does best — software — and leaving the hardware to everyone else.

First, Android XR is aptly named: it is an extension of the Android operating system, meaning its core code is Android. The big difference, though, is that Android XR is specifically designed to work on XR devices.

Fundamentally, Android XR works like any other operating system you’ve used in AR glasses or a VR headset. You view the OS through the hardware’s viewing system and can launch apps, work with data and information, play games, etc. To do this, you can use traditional VR controllers, air gestures (similar to what you’ve seen on the Apple Vision Pro), or voice commands.

Google will focus heavily on voice commands with Android XR. As Google puts it, Android XR is the first operating system created wholly in its “Gemini era,” so generative AI and the Gemini digital assistant will play huge parts here. Google is also looking to this as one of the defining differences between Android XR and its competitors, including visionOS, the operating system running Apple’s Vision Pro. Notably, visionOS works with Apple’s digital assistant Siri, but the company doesn’t heavily promote or emphasize it. Instead, it puts most of the focus on air gestures. Additionally, there are currently no features within visionOS that utilize generative AI. Google sees these deficiencies as openings for it to offer something different.

Like it does with Android, Google will let pretty much any company use Android XR. This will prevent startups in the XR space from needing to develop their own operating systems or, as we’ve seen for quite a few companies, try to reconfigure traditional Android to run on a headset. Those startups can just focus on hardware and then make minor tweaks to Android XR and be off to the races in no time.

Google is heavily focused on making Android XR as developer-friendly as possible. Since Android XR is running Android at the core, it will support the majority of Google Play apps and games out of the box. Google is also working with partners — Qualcomm, Unity, and more — to make it as easy as possible for developers to port existing apps and games designed for other XR operating systems to Android XR.

So far, Google hasn’t announced any Google-branded hardware for Android XR. Instead, Samsung will launch the first Android XR device in partnership with Qualcomm. Samsung’s VR headset, “Project Moohan,” has the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 Plus Gen 2 processor under the hood, a flagship XR processor Qualcomm launched in early 2024.

In case you’re curious, Samsung — a Korean company — is using the word “moohan” for this device because it means “infinity” in Korean. So you can think of this as “Project Infinity” if you like, but Project Moohan is its official codename.

Today, Samsung is only publically sharing the above image of the prototype for Project Moohan, emphasizing that the final retail version could look different. However, during a private briefing, Android Authority saw a lot more of it in video demos. Don’t get too excited, though, as what we saw didn’t give us much more information than what you see here. In brief, Project Moohan looks like someone mashed together the Meta Quest 3 and a Vision Pro. It is mostly made of plastic with a battery pack attached to the head strap, like the Quest 3. The front of the device is made of glass, though, like the Vision Pro.

The demo videos we saw suggest that the front being glass is purely for aesthetic reasons. There’s no indication that it replicates the Vision Pro’s interesting (albeit creepy) digital projection of the user’s eyes in real-time. You can “see” through the headset, though, using a low-latency video feed projected to your eyes. In other words, you can’t look through the headset as you would through a window, but you’ll be able to see your real-world surroundings in full color, just like on a Quest 3.

In the videos Google and Samsung showed us, we didn’t see any physical controllers being used. Instead, all focus was put on air gestures and voice commands. However, Google and Samsung did assure us that the retail launch of Project Moohan would include controllers and that you can use those controllers to play games. This is terrific news, as one of the most disappointing aspects of the Vision Pro was its lack of traditional controls, making it a non-starter as a VR gaming rig.

In other words, Project Moohan seems to be the best of all worlds: the gaming and fun of a Quest 3, the productivity and usability of a Vision Pro, and the voice-controlled Gemini tools of a smartphone. We’ll need to wait and see how commercially successful this is, but it seems like it’s in a good spot.

Project Moohan’s marketing name announcement and eventual commercial launch will happen in 2025. Rumors suggest we could hear more about it alongside the Samsung Galaxy S25 series launch, which we expect to happen in January. Don’t get your hopes up for the retail launch at that point, though. It’s more likely we’ll get the device’s real name at that event and then learn more about it over the following months, with a full launch in the second half of the year.

The team here at Android Authority is a little disappointed that Google and Samsung have opted to launch Android XR with a VR headset rather than AR glasses. After all, VR headsets like Project Moohan have been around for quite a long time, while AR devices like the Ray-Ban Meta glasses are just coming up.

Thankfully, Google assured us that a set of XR glasses are on the way, too. It didn’t say when, but it showed us demo videos of people using smart glasses powered by Android XR. The glasses — which Google emphasized were just a prototype — look a lot like Ray-Ban Meta glasses, complete with the classic Wayfarer frame design.

You can watch one of the demo videos above. In it, a woman chats with Gemini in real time about installing some shelves. She gets info about the installation, suggestions on arranging them, etc., all using natural language. Gemini even remembers where she left a tool she needed for the activity. Essentially, Google envisions AR glasses as a tool for interacting with Gemini. In fact, every video asset shared with us only centered on Gemini interactions, so it’s clear what Google is focused on the most here.

The demo videos shared with us show the same actions we all saw in a similar teaser video presented at Google I/O this year. So, really, there’s not much new here, just the admission that glasses are in the works and they will run Android XR.

It wasn’t immediately clear if Samsung/Qualcomm would also make these glasses, but that’s a safe bet. Google said we’ll hear more about this in 2025.

Android XR is available to select developers starting today. Samsung is seeding a small collection of Project Moohan prototypes to developers so they can begin to test out Android XR and give feedback.

Eventually, more prototypes will be available. Google is also providing an emulator integrated into Android Studio. This will allow for an even wider selection of developers to work with it.

We have a while to wait for when non-developers will be able to use Android XR. We know Project Moohan will be the debut product with Android XR, and all rumors suggest it won’t land until the second half of 2025. Until then, we’ll all just need to sit tight and see what Google and Samsung dish out to us over the coming weeks and months.

In the meantime, what do you think of Android XR? Let us know in the poll above, and sound off in the comments below to explain your choice.