A revolution in wearable technology is now on the horizon. Soon we’ll see a legion of smart glasses that combine on-demand and on-need AI-powered audio and visual information, delivered with or without your nearby smartphone, and all without imposing strange looks or physical discomfort. However, the revolution is not yet built on “aha!” moments (and maybe some FOMO).
That’s the conclusion I drew after speaking with Juston Payne, Google’s Senior Director of Product Management for XR. We chatted moments after I had my own “aha!” moments with dev-kit-level monocular and dual-screen Android XR smart glasses. You can read more about the impressive first look here.
Getting to the tipping point
However, there is still a long way to go from the Payne family’s “aha!” moment of true Fear of Missing Out (“FOMO”), the moment when the availability and ubiquity of Android XR smartwatches generates FOMO among other consumers and drives adoption.
Google and Android XR partner Samsung have already announced partnerships with eyewear makers Warby Parker and Gentle Monster. However, I pointed out that most people probably still get their glasses from places like LensCrafters and Visionworks. Payne pointed out the partnership announcement with Kering Eyewear, but it’s still a luxury eyewear provider.
Payne acknowledged that the vision is far broader accessibility.
“So the idea is that over time we’ll get to that vision that you said — which is that anybody can walk into a store and make a choice to get a smart version that’s powered by Android XR and Gemini. And that’s going to be a really exciting future to get to.”
The key, he told me, is making sure the industry delivers the right form factors, and especially the price points. The lens options, he added, should be “inclusive of people’s different vision needs.”
A big moment for Android XR
Payne and I spoke as Google and its partners prepared to launch an Android Day: XR Edition (Dec. 8), the moment when everyone would see its vision for Android XR-powered smart glasses.
The glasses, while not quite ready for primetime, are the clearest indication of Android’s plans and full-blown hopes for Android XR, which Payne reminds me is “the next computing platform. So it’s a big new category that’s going to exist over the next few years, and it’s going to be a big part of people’s lives going forward.”
The single- and dual-screen glasses, along with the Xreal Aura (revealed at the same event) and the Samsung Galaxy XR mixed reality headset I recently reviewed, now represent the full range of Google’s current Android XR ambitions.
Although they are all built on a foundation of Gemini intelligence, there are differences that I experienced in my hands-on demos. I was curious if Google dictates e.g. the display style, which ranges from the Sony Micro OLED screens and prisms found on the Xreal Aura (which is actually connected to a pocket-sized computer pack) to the wide, high-resolution FoV on the Galaxy XR, and then to the thin and transparent waveguide technology found in the two standalone smart Android XR prototypes.
It turns out that while Google doesn’t dictate viewing experiences, it is “outspoken” on the subject. There are, Payne explained, reasons for all these differences.
“It’s actually helpful to think here in terms of the type of use we expect from the products, and then we work with the partner companies on the right solutions in there,” he said.
Use cases define displays
Products used “episodically”, like Aura or Galaxy XR, want optical systems that prioritize a wide field of view. For these products, partial or even full occlusion of your real field of vision is okay because you often sit down and e.g. playing a game or watching a video.
Obviously the requirements are different for glasses where you can’t afford the lenses to be off or obstructed in any significant way. “For those, you need an absolutely clear lens. Like a beautiful, crystal clear lens where you have a screen built right into the lens. Those will be waveguide solutions.”
In fact, we think the same person is likely to have multiple XR products in their life
Juston Payne, Google’s Senior Director of Product Management for XR
Not only is the Android XR idea not “one size fits all,” Payne envisions a future where people own more than one XR device. “We actually think the same person is likely to have multiple XR products in their life. In some way the same way that someone doesn’t have a laptop or a phone; they have a laptop and a phone.”
This of course means even lighter and thinner glasses and generally cheaper and more easily available smart frames, and there will be an ecosystem and apps to support the smart glasses. Payne is excited about the future and sees a parallel to at least one other tech era.
“We think this is actually a very early space and the story hasn’t been written for it yet. So it’s great to see that there’s momentum, it’s great to see that there’s some traction out there. But, you know, to contextualize it: there’s no glasses out there that have an app ecosystem attached to them yet. So in that way, it was almost like there was no time, like the iPhone store was a little while. in that time.”
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