We're accelerating the Android XR platform with a new agreement with HTC

Post by verdverm » Thu, Jan 23, 2025, 11:14 AM UTC

jdietrich wrote: post #15

jillesvangurp wrote: post #11

The announcement is a bit lacking in detail. What are they actually announcing here beyond doing something related to XR? I talked to some IOS developers recently doing an app with some AR features. They were doing things with lidar and indoor maps on the iphone. I asked them if they were working on an Android version as well (I have a pixel 6 phone) and they told me that they tried but that the Android APIs are a bi…

Google are launching a version of Android specifically tailored for XR applications. A preview version of the SDK is available now. The first hardware is expected to launch later this year, with devices announced by Samsung and Sony. Google have paid HTC $250m in exchange for technology licensing and an unspecified number of staff. It's a deal that's vaguely reminiscent of the 2017 deal, which saw Google acquihire ar…

Post by andybak » Thu, Jan 23, 2025, 11:15 AM UTC

jeroenhd wrote: post #38

thecupisblue wrote: post #34

Again? Seeing HTC do this makes me sad. They will get burnt by Google again. HTC was an amazing technological frontrunner for Android phones. The team got absorbed by Google. They had people working on VR/XR. That team got absorbed by Google too. Now, the VR team is getting absorbed again. Google tried this already - and failed. And as someone who held multiple workshops educating people to use Google's AR/VR tech, I…

HTC's standalone VR headsets already run Android as their OS. They could've gone with Windows, had Microsoft not shut down their mixed reality ambitions last year. It's not like Apple is going to open their VR iOS software (whatever it's called) and Facebook won't just give them their Quest OS either. At the moment, their choices are "build a custom OS" or "continue using the existing Android OS". And to be honest, I…

Post by firtoz » Thu, Jan 23, 2025, 11:38 AM UTC

verdverm wrote: post #40

firtoz wrote: post #10

So.. Meta has Meta Horizon OS, which feels quite inaccessible to non-corpos AFAIK, and now we have Android XR. Is it more accessible? I was working with Razer back in the day (as a third party contributor, not part of the team) for Razer OSVR and that was very exciting. They shut that down though. So, what I'm asking is, could someone do the equivalent of the Open Source Laptop[1] but for XR? [1]: https://news.ycombi…

There are several open XR projects, here is one: https://gatlee21.github.io/TritonProject-Guide/

Post by blensor » Thu, Jan 23, 2025, 11:43 AM UTC

firtoz wrote: post #10

So.. Meta has Meta Horizon OS, which feels quite inaccessible to non-corpos AFAIK, and now we have Android XR. Is it more accessible? I was working with Razer back in the day (as a third party contributor, not part of the team) for Razer OSVR and that was very exciting. They shut that down though. So, what I'm asking is, could someone do the equivalent of the Open Source Laptop[1] but for XR? [1]: https://news.ycombi…

Post by blensor » Thu, Jan 23, 2025, 11:49 AM UTC

bane wrote: post #45

jeroenhd wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HTC's standalone VR headsets already run Android as their OS. They could've gone with Windows, had Microsoft not shut down their mixed reality ambitions last year. It's not like Apple is going to open their VR iOS software (whatever it's called) and Facebook won't just give them their Quest OS either. At the moment, their choices are "build a custom OS" or "continue using the existing Android OS". And to be honest, I…

Meta is starting to license HorizonOS to other companies.