After teasing its debut late last year, Samsung has offered a public look at its upcoming Android XR headset, “Project Moohan,” at its latest Unpacked event.
To “accelerate” Android XR development, Google announced this evening that it “signed an agreement to welcome some of the HTC VIVE engineering team to Google.”
After Google teased work on an Android XR headset at the end of last year, we’re finally getting a little closer as Samsung took the time at Galaxy Unpacked to tease a possibly upcoming AI headset alongside the Galaxy S25 series.
Mixed reality headsets are not new. My personal novelty with them ended upon buying Apple’s Vision Pro earlier this year. In using Samsung’s Android XR-powered Project Moohan for about 30 minutes last week, Google has got all the basics down. However, Android XR has a true differentiator with Gemini, while bringing together almost a decade’s worth of Google efforts in a seamless, integrated manner.
As a child, my first vision for the future of technology was shaped by an aspect of Star Trek that’s different from most people’s: the absolute ubiquity of touchscreens and tablets (PADDs). I was enamored with the idea of interacting with information via touch and being able to do so anywhere instead of in a fixed place. All that became reality with the iPhone and Android, and I live it every day.
My next vision of the future came with a 2:30 minute concept video. It ingrained in me that what comes after the smartphone is information overlaid with your line of sight as it’s contextually needed.
Besides phones and tablets, Android is available on smartwatches, TVs, and even cars. Google today announced Android XR as the next form factor the operating system is coming to.