Google has released a second developer preview for its Android XR Software Development Kit (SDK) following its first release later last year. It introduced new features and improvements, including wide support for immersive video, better adaptive UI layouts, and hand tracking in Arcore in Jetpack.
The billet of Android XR SDK updates announced at Google I/O is intended to provide developers with a more standardized tool to create their own XR native apps or bring standard Android apps to their headsets.
This includes support for 180° and 360° stereoscopic video playback using the MV-HEVC format.
Google has announced that Android XR Developer Preview 2 also has JetPack composing for XR. This allows for adaptive UI layout across the XR display using tools such as Subspace Modifier and Spatial Externalsurface. JetPack Compose is Google’s declarative UI toolkit aims to standardize UI design across mobile, tablet, and immersive headsets.
A major update to Arcore in Jetpack XR is the introduction of hand tracking with 26 pose joints for gesture-based interactions. Developers can find updated samples, benchmarks and guides that help integrate hand tracking into their apps.
XR’s material design has also been expanded, and Google says it will help “large screen-enabled apps (easily adapt to the new world of XR.”
Still, most Android XR developers probably do Please don’t You can access the official Android XR headset. This includes the Mixed Reality Headset Samsung Project Moohan and the AR Glasses XReal Project Aura at launch later this year. AndroidXR emulators create essential tools.
According to Google, developer preview 2 has improved the Android XR emulator with AMD GPU support, better stability and tightened integration into Android Studio.
Unity, the most popular game engine in XR development, also provides access to Pre-Release version 2 of Unity OpenXR. Unity’s improved mixed reality template also features realistic hand-mesh occlusion and persistent anchors.
Additionally, Unity’s Android XR sample will be released, showing features like hand tracking, plane tracking, face tracking, pass-through and more, kickstarting developers to integrate those features into their own Android XR apps.
That said, Android XR wasn’t exactly a major headliner at Google I/O this year, but the company is moving forward not only by releasing Android XR to more partner devices, but also by releasing Android XR smart glasses from Eyewear Makers Warby Parker and the mild monster.
Google says it has released two major versions of Android XR glasses. One is surprisingly similar to Ray-Ban Metagrass. One has an onboard display for basic tasks like reading text, displaying photos and videos, and navigation.
For more information about Android XR Developer Preview, we’ve included details about all the tools and updates currently available.
