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Android XR SDK

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Android XR SDK
Information
Type Software development kit
Industry Extended reality software development
Developer Google
Written In Kotlin, Java
Operating System Android XR
Supported Devices Samsung Galaxy XR, Xreal Aura (fall 2026), Android XR Emulator
Release Date December 12, 2024 (Developer Preview 1)
Website https://developer.android.com/develop/xr


Android XR SDK is Google's software development kit for building applications for Android XR, the Android platform for extended reality headsets and glasses.[1] Its three core Jetpack libraries (Jetpack SceneCore, ARCore for Jetpack XR and the XR Runtime) reached their first stable version, 1.0.0, on October 21, 2026, and Google announced them as stable at the Android Dev Summit on October 28, 2026.[2][3][4][5] The other Jetpack XR libraries remained in beta (Jetpack Compose for XR) or alpha (Material Design for XR, Jetpack Compose Glimmer and Jetpack Projected), and Google's Jetpack XR SDK overview, last updated on October 28, 2026, still described the libraries as part of the Android XR Developer Preview.[6][7][8][9][10] Google published the first developer preview on December 12, 2024, alongside the announcement of Android XR itself, and has since released three further developer previews: Developer Preview 2 on May 20, 2025, Developer Preview 3 on December 8, 2025 and Developer Preview 4 on May 19, 2026.[11][12][13][14]

The SDK is not a single package. Its core is the Jetpack XR SDK, a set of Kotlin libraries (Jetpack Compose for XR, Jetpack SceneCore, ARCore for Jetpack XR, Material Design for XR, and, since late 2025, Jetpack Compose Glimmer and Jetpack Projected) that extend ordinary Android app development to spatial and glasses form factors. Around those libraries sit tooling in Android Studio, including an Android XR emulator, and separate paths for the Unity, Unreal Engine and Godot engines, the OpenXR standard and WebXR in Chrome.[1][10][11]

The core libraries went through beta and two release candidates before the stable release: Google announced beta releases of Jetpack SceneCore, ARCore for Jetpack XR and the XR Runtime on August 18, 2026, release candidate builds (1.0.0-rc01) of all three followed on September 9, 2026, and a second release candidate (1.0.0-rc02), containing only bug fixes, on October 7, 2026. Jetpack Compose for XR reached its first beta, 1.0.0-beta01, on September 23, 2026, and its second, 1.0.0-beta02, on October 21, 2026.[15][2][3][4][6][16] The first Android XR headset on sale was the Samsung Galaxy XR, released on October 21, 2025 in the United States and South Korea,[17] and in the United Kingdom in July 2026.[18] Xreal's wired glasses, Xreal Aura, were priced on October 7, 2026 at US$1,279 (12 GB/256 GB) and US$1,499 (16 GB/512 GB), with a first delivery wave promised before the holidays; Xreal had earlier capped the base price at US$1,500.[19][20] Orders opened on October 28, 2026 in the United States, Canada and South Korea, with launch prices of US$1,099 and US$1,299 through December 2026 and first shipments planned for mid-November; Google said orders in Japan would open on November 2.[21][22][23]

Reviewed 2 November 2026. November 2026 update: AndroidX release notes for SceneCore, ARCore for Jetpack XR, XR Runtime, Compose for XR (including the SpatialGltfModel history), Material Design for XR, Compose Glimmer and Projected (October 21, 2026 releases and alpha01 dates); Google's October 28, 2026 Android Dev Summit and Android Studio Rabbit 2 posts; the Android XR landing page, Jetpack XR SDK overview, SDK setup guide and Android Studio setup guide; the December 2024 Developer Preview post (WebXR in Chrome); the Unity OpenXR Android XR 1.5 changelog and Android XR Extensions for Unity v1.5.0; the Unreal Engine page; Godot OpenXR Vendors 5.2.0-rc1; Xreal Aura launch reports from Google, Road to VR and 9to5Google. Other parts of the page were not rechecked; the previous source check was on October 14, 2026. About review dates.

History

Developer Preview 1 (December 2024)

Google introduced the Android XR SDK Developer Preview on December 12, 2024, the day it announced Android XR. The first preview shipped the four original Jetpack XR libraries (Jetpack Compose for XR, Material Design for XR, Jetpack SceneCore and ARCore for Jetpack XR), an Android XR emulator and an Android XR project template in the Android Studio Meerkat preview, and an updated Layout Inspector for spatial UI. For engine developers, Google said Unity 6 integrated with Android XR through a Unity OpenXR: Android XR package and a companion Android XR Extensions for Unity package with a mouse interaction profile, environment blend mode, personalized hand mesh and object tracking. Android XR launched as an OpenXR 1.1 platform with vendor extensions for hand mesh, depth textures, light estimation and object trackables, and Chrome on Android XR supported WebXR.[11] Google also stated that most existing Android apps would run on Android XR through the Play Store without additional work.[11] The 1.0.0-alpha01 builds of Jetpack Compose for XR, Material Design for XR, Jetpack SceneCore, ARCore for Jetpack XR and the XR Runtime carry the same December 12, 2024 date.[6][7][2][3][4]

Developer Preview 2 (May 2025)

Developer Preview 2 arrived on May 20, 2025. The Jetpack XR SDK gained playback of 180-degree and 360-degree video, including stereoscopic video encoded with MV-HEVC or with side-by-side view frames. Jetpack Compose for XR added a SubspaceModifier for sizing a subspace as a percentage of a device's recommended viewing size, Material Design for XR added overrides for TopAppBar, AlertDialog and ListDetailPaneScaffold, and ARCore for Jetpack XR added hand tracking with 26 posed hand joints. Unity's package moved to Pre-Release 2 with dynamic refresh rate, SpaceWarp support through Shader Graph and hand mesh occlusion, the emulator gained AMD GPU support and full integration into the Android Studio UI, and Firebase AI Logic for Unity entered public preview for calling Gemini models.[12] Road to VR's coverage of the release singled out the stereoscopic video support, the hand tracking joints and the Unity additions.[24] The same post said Samsung's Project Moohan headset would launch later in 2025, that Xreal's Project Aura would follow as a developer edition, and that a Google Play Store for XR would open later in 2025.[12]

Galaxy XR launch and Developer Preview 3 (October to December 2025)

The first Android XR device, the Samsung Galaxy XR, went on sale in the United States and South Korea on October 21, 2025.[17] On the same day Unity announced general availability of Android XR support in Unity 6 and named the Unity-built launch titles Google Maps XR, NFL Pro Era, and the Owlchemy Labs games Inside [JOB], Vacation Simulator, Job Simulator and Dimensional Doubleshift.[25]

Developer Preview 3 followed on December 8, 2025, announced during The Android Show: XR Edition.[26] Its main addition was support for glasses: the new Jetpack Projected library lets a phone app reach the sensors, speakers and displays of AI glasses, Jetpack Compose Glimmer supplies a UI toolkit for optical see-through displays, and an AI glasses emulator in Android Studio simulates touchpad and voice input. For headsets, SceneCore gained dynamic glTF loading from URIs, Widevine DRM in SurfaceEntity and sphere and hemisphere shapes for 360-degree and 180-degree video; Compose for XR gained a UserSubspace component, spatial animations and layout sizes expressed as fractions of the field of view; ARCore for Jetpack XR gained motion tracking and geospatial features for glasses, face tracking with 68 blendshape values, and eye tracking and depth maps on headsets. The Unity SDK added experimental scene meshing, QR and ArUco marker tracking, planar image tracking and body tracking, and a second emulator profile modeled on Project Aura-class wired glasses appeared. The release required Android Studio Canary (Otter 3, Canary 4 or later) and emulator 36.4.3 Canary or later.[13] Google's consumer-facing post from the same event said AI glasses built with Samsung, Gentle Monster and Warby Parker would arrive in 2026, and that Project Aura, with a 70-degree field of view, would get launch details in 2026.[27]

Developer Preview 4 and the road to beta (2026)

Developer Preview 4 was released on May 19, 2026. Google renamed its glasses categories (AI glasses became audio glasses, and display AI glasses became display glasses), added a Device Availability API and a ProjectedTestRule to Jetpack Projected, and gave Compose Glimmer Google Sans Flex typography and new Stacks and Title Chips components. For headsets and wired glasses, SceneCore added a GltfModelNode for custom materials and textures and an experimental Custom Meshes API, Compose for XR added native glTF rendering through SpatialGltfModel, and a preview Geospatial API for wired XR glasses promised location-anchored content in more than 87 countries. The same release made Unreal Engine and Godot officially supported engines and launched the Android XR Engine Hub.[14] A companion post from the OpenXR developer relations team detailed the engine work: Unity's OpenXR: Android XR package for the Unity 6.5 beta plus Android XR Extensions v1.3.1 with Spatial API support and a Fine Eye Poses feature; an Android XR vendor plugin for Unreal Engine targeting 5.6.1 in developer preview; Godot 4.6.2 and higher through the Godot OpenXR Vendors plugin 5.1; the Engine Hub, a Windows tool that streams hand tracking, eye gaze, passthrough and other perception data from a headset into an engine on the desktop; and a developer preview, for Unity, of the Android XR Interaction Framework (AXRIF).[28] Google also opened the Android XR Developer Catalyst Program, which gives selected developers early hardware access, support forums and launch guidance; 9to5Google reported that the application page opened the same day and that Xreal's glasses would go on sale before the end of 2026.[29][30]

The first beta builds (1.0.0-beta01) of Jetpack SceneCore, ARCore for Jetpack XR and the XR Runtime appeared in the AndroidX release notes on July 15, 2026, followed by 1.0.0-beta02 on August 12.[2][3][4] On August 18, 2026, Google announced that the three libraries had reached beta, giving 1.0.0-beta02 in its dependency examples and describing beta as the point at which the APIs are stabilizing and suitable for production work. The beta added Kotlin coroutines support and expanded testing support for spatial audio and XR devices, and renamed AnchorEntity to AnchorSpace, with ActivitySpace and AnchorSpace now sharing a SpaceEntity base class. Jetpack Compose for XR stayed at 1.0.0-alpha17.[15]

Release candidates (September to October 2026)

The 1.0.0-rc01 release candidates of the three core libraries, and a 1.1.0-alpha01 build of the XR Runtime, appeared on September 9, 2026.[2][3][4] SceneCore's rc01 added a separate scenecore-openxr library, removed several deprecated APIs "ahead of the 1.0.0 stable release" and fixed a memory leak in which a destroyed Activity could be retained; the Runtime's 1.1.0-alpha01 added a SPATIAL_API_V4 value to SpatialApiVersions.[2][4]

Jetpack Compose for XR followed the core libraries into beta with 1.0.0-beta01 on September 23, 2026. That release removed deprecated APIs such as DragPolicy (replaced by SubspaceModifier.movable()) and the old ResizePolicy, required a SpatialActivityPanelController for SpatialActivityPanel, deprecated the Orbiter overload that takes an OrbiterPoseProvider, and replaced the up-direction parameter of the rotate-to-look-at-user behavior with yaw and pitch constraint parameters. Its release notes list one known issue: creating many panels in a single Activity can corrupt what is displayed, even after the panels are destroyed.[6] The glasses libraries stayed in alpha. Jetpack Compose Glimmer 1.0.0-alpha20 (September 23, 2026) added an AlertDialog, image cards and IconMarker components for anchoring to real-world objects and moved to Kotlin 2.2, and alpha21 (October 7, 2026) added focused color customization to Button; Jetpack Projected 1.0.0-alpha13 (September 23, 2026) added methods that let an app choose which activity is relaunched and receives input focus on displayless glasses.[8][9]

Google published the second release candidate, 1.0.0-rc02, of SceneCore, ARCore for Jetpack XR and the XR Runtime on October 7, 2026. The release notes list only bug fixes: five in SceneCore (memory leaks in session and scene caching, a context leak in OpenXR native handles, race conditions in XrInstanceManager, and cleanup actions running twice after garbage collection), two in ARCore for Jetpack XR (including a failure to configure the session when augmented image tracking was unsupported) and one summary entry for the Runtime.[2][3][4] MIXED counted eight entries with no API changes, noted that 28 days separated the two release candidates, and wrote that there was still no Android XR SDK 1.0.[16]

Stable core libraries (October 2026)

Google released version 1.0.0 of Jetpack SceneCore, ARCore for Jetpack XR and the XR Runtime on October 21, 2026, the first stable version of each library. Each 1.0.0 release note announces that the library "is now stable", and the ARCore for Jetpack XR note lists its features as motion tracking, persistent anchors, hit testing, plane identification with semantic labeling and Geospatial poses using Google's Visual Positioning System.[2][3][4] New version 1.1 alpha builds appeared the same day: SceneCore 1.1.0-alpha01 and XR Runtime 1.1.0-alpha02 added APIs for updating mesh vertex and index data at runtime, SceneCore promoted its glTF animation APIs GltfAnimation, getAnimations and stopAllAnimations to stable, and ARCore for Jetpack XR 1.1.0-alpha01 introduced a SpatialAnnotation API for tracking bounded 3D quadrilateral geometries and added a geospatial pose and accuracy values to the Geospatial state.[2][3][4] Jetpack Compose for XR stayed in beta with 1.0.0-beta02, released the same day; its release notes warn that it depends on SceneCore 1.0.0-rc01, which has a known memory leak, and say developers may override that dependency with SceneCore 1.0.0, which fixes the leak.[6] Jetpack Compose Glimmer (1.0.0-alpha22) and Jetpack Projected (1.0.0-alpha14) also had alpha releases that day, while Material Design for XR remained at 1.0.0-alpha17, released on May 19, 2026.[8][9][7]

At the Android Dev Summit on October 28, 2026, where Google and Xreal launched Xreal Aura, Google announced that the core libraries were stable and said they bring "production-ready APIs, long-term API stability, and backward compatibility". The same announcement said the Android XR emulators for XR glasses, audio glasses and display glasses were now stable, as was the Android XR Engine Hub, which Google said offers a workflow for starting and analyzing performance traces across Unity, Godot and Unreal.[5] Google's setup guide, updated the same day, gives 1.1.0 alpha versions of SceneCore, ARCore for Jetpack XR and the XR Runtime in its dependency examples for immersive apps, alongside Compose for XR 1.0.0-beta02 and Material Design for XR 1.0.0-alpha17. Its examples for audio and display glasses use older builds (ARCore for Jetpack XR 1.0.0-beta02, Compose Glimmer 1.0.0-alpha18 and Projected 1.0.0-alpha13) and tell developers to use those versions even if newer ones have been released.[31] The Jetpack XR SDK overview, also updated on October 28, still said that the libraries "are part of the Android XR Developer Preview, and these APIs are still under development".[10]

Milestone Date Main additions Source
Developer Preview 1 December 12, 2024 Jetpack XR SDK (Compose for XR, Material Design for XR, SceneCore, ARCore for Jetpack XR), Android Studio Meerkat emulator and template, Unity 6 package, OpenXR 1.1, WebXR [11]
Developer Preview 2 May 20, 2025 180/360-degree stereoscopic video, SubspaceModifier, hand tracking (26 joints), Unity Pre-Release 2, emulator inside Android Studio [12]
Developer Preview 3 December 8, 2025 Jetpack Projected, Jetpack Compose Glimmer, AI glasses emulator, glTF via URI, Widevine DRM, face and eye tracking, XR glasses emulator [13]
Developer Preview 4 May 19, 2026 Audio and display glasses naming, Device Availability API, SpatialGltfModel, Custom Meshes, Geospatial API preview for wired glasses, official Unreal Engine and Godot support, Engine Hub [14]
Core libraries beta August 18, 2026 SceneCore, ARCore for Jetpack XR and XR Runtime at 1.0.0-beta02; Kotlin coroutines; AnchorEntity renamed AnchorSpace [15]
Core libraries release candidate September 9, 2026 SceneCore, ARCore for Jetpack XR and XR Runtime at 1.0.0-rc01; XR Runtime 1.1.0-alpha01 [2][3][4]
Compose for XR beta September 23, 2026 Jetpack Compose for XR 1.0.0-beta01; deprecated APIs removed [6]
Second release candidate October 7, 2026 SceneCore, ARCore for Jetpack XR and XR Runtime at 1.0.0-rc02; bug fixes only, no API changes [2][16]
Stable core libraries October 21, 2026 SceneCore, ARCore for Jetpack XR and XR Runtime at 1.0.0, plus 1.1.0 alpha builds; Compose for XR 1.0.0-beta02; stability announced at Android Dev Summit on October 28, with stable glasses emulators and Engine Hub [2][3][4][6][5]

Components

Jetpack XR SDK

A rectangular spatial UI panel floats in a room.
A spatial panel illustrated in the Jetpack Compose for XR guide.
A main spatial panel and a smaller orbiter panel below it.
An orbiter placed beneath a panel in the Jetpack Compose for XR guide.


The Jetpack XR SDK is the native path for Android XR. Google's documentation lists six libraries, each aimed at particular device classes, plus an underlying XR Runtime that manages sessions and device lifecycles.[10][15]

Jetpack Compose for XR extends Jetpack Compose with "subspace" composables such as spatial panels and orbiters, spatial rows and columns, and a SceneCoreEntity composable for placing 3D models relative to UI; it targets XR headsets and wired XR glasses.[10] Its first alpha, released with Developer Preview 1, introduced Subspace, SpatialPanel, Orbiter and Volume; the Volume API was later removed in 1.0.0-alpha09 (December 2025). The SpatialGltfModel API for rendering glTF assets was first added in the same alpha09 release, was marked as restricted pending additional testing in 1.0.0-alpha12 (March 2026) and 1.0.0-alpha13 (May 2026), and became experimental, requiring developers to opt in, in 1.0.0-alpha17 (August 2026).[6] Material Design for XR provides Material components and layouts that adapt to XR automatically.[10] Jetpack SceneCore is the lower-level scene graph library for placing entities (panels, 3D models, spatial audio sources, environments) and attaching components such as movable, resizable and anchored behaviors.[10] ARCore for Jetpack XR supplies perception: motion tracking, persistent anchors, hit testing and plane detection with semantic labels such as floor, wall and tabletop. Unlike the original ARCore for phones, it is built on OpenXR and runs only on Android XR.[10] Later alphas added hand tracking, an ArDevice and RenderViewpoint API, geospatial and Visual Positioning System availability checks, a TiltGesture API, a QrCode marker-tracking API and an ArCoreTestRule for tests.[3]

The two glasses libraries arrived in late 2025. Jetpack Compose Glimmer (androidx.xr.glimmer, first alpha November 5, 2025) is a design language and component set for display glasses, with simplified color palettes, legibility-focused typography, outline focus states instead of ripples, and components including Text, Icon, Button and TitleChip; it handles taps, swipes and voice input.[10][8] Jetpack Projected (androidx.xr.projected, first alpha October 22, 2025) targets audio glasses and display glasses, and lets a phone app obtain a projected device context for glasses hardware such as the camera, request permissions, and query device and display capabilities.[10][9]

The following table gives the state of each library as published in the AndroidX release notes, checked on November 2, 2026.

Library Artifact Device classes First release Latest version (November 2026) Source
Jetpack Compose for XR androidx.xr.compose:compose XR headsets, wired XR glasses 1.0.0-alpha01, December 12, 2024 1.0.0-beta02, October 21, 2026 [6]
Material Design for XR androidx.xr.compose.material3:material3 XR headsets, wired XR glasses 1.0.0-alpha01, December 12, 2024 1.0.0-alpha17, May 19, 2026 [7][10]
Jetpack SceneCore androidx.xr.scenecore:scenecore XR headsets, wired XR glasses 1.0.0-alpha01, December 12, 2024 1.0.0 (stable) and 1.1.0-alpha01, both October 21, 2026 [2]
ARCore for Jetpack XR androidx.xr.arcore:arcore XR headsets, wired XR glasses, audio glasses, display glasses 1.0.0-alpha01, December 12, 2024 1.0.0 (stable) and 1.1.0-alpha01, both October 21, 2026 [3]
XR Runtime androidx.xr.runtime:runtime Session and lifecycle layer 1.0.0-alpha01, December 12, 2024 1.0.0 (stable) and 1.1.0-alpha02, both October 21, 2026 [4]
Jetpack Compose Glimmer androidx.xr.glimmer:glimmer Wired XR glasses, display glasses 1.0.0-alpha01, November 5, 2025 1.0.0-alpha22, October 21, 2026 [8][10]
Jetpack Projected androidx.xr.projected:projected Audio glasses, display glasses 1.0.0-alpha01, October 22, 2025 1.0.0-alpha14, October 21, 2026 [9]

Google's documentation names Kotlin and Jetpack Compose as the primary languages and toolkits, with Java and Views as secondary options. 3D assets are supplied as glTF or GLB files.[10][1]

Android Studio and the Android XR emulator

Google's guide to installing Android Studio for XR development, last updated in May 2026, recommends the latest Canary build and says other versions "might not include Android XR tools".[32] On October 28, 2026, the day Android Studio Rabbit 2 became a stable release, Google said the Android XR emulators for XR glasses, audio glasses and display glasses were now stable in Android Studio. The updated display glasses emulator can use the developer's own 360-degree photos or a video feed from a connected camera as its environment, and Google also added LED indicators for microphone and camera state and improved the Pairing Wizard for pairing a virtual phone with virtual audio and display glasses.[33] The Android XR emulator provides virtual devices for four form factors: XR headsets (a fully immersive virtual space), wired XR glasses (optical see-through with a wide field of view), audio glasses and display glasses. On macOS the headset and glasses images need macOS 13.3 or later on Apple Silicon with at least 16 GB of memory; on Windows they need Windows 11, a 9th-generation Intel or Ryzen 1000-series CPU or later, 16 GB of RAM, an NVIDIA GeForce 10-series or AMD Radeon RX 5000-series GPU or later with 8 GB of VRAM, and VMX extensions enabled in the BIOS. The emulator is meant for Android Studio apps and does not run Unity or OpenXR apps.[34][1] Android Studio also includes a Layout Inspector for spatial UI and an Android XR project template.[11] In June 2026 Google added a "display glasses skill" for its Android command-line tooling, published on GitHub, that generates Compose Glimmer UI following Google's design patterns.[29]

Unity

Unity was the first engine with Android XR support, included from Developer Preview 1.[11] Android XR support requires Unity 6 (version 6000.0 or later); the Unity OpenXR: Android XR package (com.unity.xr.androidxr-openxr) provides most platform features through OpenXR and AR Foundation, and Google's separate Android XR Extensions for Unity, distributed on GitHub, adds vendor-specific features.[35][36] Google recommends the Universal Render Pipeline and Vulkan on Android XR, which it describes as a Vulkan-first platform.[35][36] Documented features include hand tracking and hand mesh, face tracking with confidence regions, eye gaze interaction (requiring the EYE_TRACKING_FINE permission), passthrough and passthrough composition layers, plane detection, object tracking, spatial, plane and persistent anchors, environment depth occlusion, eye-tracked foveated rendering, SpaceWarp, composition layers, environment blend modes and a geospatial feature for the Visual Positioning System. Input profiles cover hands, eye gaze, 6DoF controllers via the Oculus Touch profile, mouse, palm pose and keyboard.[35]

The package changelog records experimental 0.x builds through 2024 and early 2025, a 1.0.0 release on June 30, 2025, 1.2.0 on December 22, 2025, 1.3.0 on April 6, 2026, 1.3.1 on May 7, 2026 and 1.3.2 on August 26, 2026.[37] The 1.3.2 package manual lists AR Foundation 6.4, the OpenXR Plug-in 1.17 and XR Hands 1.7 as its dependencies.[38] A parallel 1.4 line reached 1.4.0 on August 4, 2026 after two pre-releases in June; its changes include hardware-support checks for features such as passthrough dimming, face and eye tracking, hand mesh, spatial anchors and plane tracking, and a dependency on AR Foundation 6.6. Version 1.4.1, released the same day as 1.3.2, fixed the capitalization of the android.software.xr.api.spatial manifest entry, an error that had caused the Google Play Store to filter affected apps from all devices. A 1.5.0-pre.1 build followed on September 15, 2026, and version 1.5.0 on October 16, 2026. That release raised the minimum AR Foundation version to 6.7.0 and the minimum OpenXR Plug-in version to 1.19.0, stopped reporting support for three plane trackable types for raycasts (PlaneWithinBounds, PlaneWithinInfinity and PlaneEstimated) that the Android XR runtime had never supported, and fixed apps that launched as a 2D panel instead of in Full Space when the launcher activity in a custom Android manifest declared other property elements. Version 1.5.1, released on October 27, 2026, raised the AR Foundation minimum to 6.7.1.[39] Google's own Android XR Extensions for Unity reached v1.4.0 on July 30, 2026, adding a Geospatial feature with Visual Positioning System availability checks, Google Cloud authentication options, multimodal face tracking and a battery-state query for controllers, and removing its legacy foveation feature in favor of the foveated rendering support in Unity's OpenXR Plug-in 1.17.0.[40] Version 1.5.0 of the extensions, published on October 27, 2026, added a Spatial Entities feature set with 3D bounding box detection and a shareable-anchor subsystem with methods for attaching geospatial and surface anchors, a Spatial Container feature that renders an app's content within a single spatial container, plane-tracking configuration and status APIs for surface anchors in its geospatial manager and support for Spatial API Level 4.[41] On June 16, 2026 Unity announced support for wired XR glasses, its first for a glasses form factor, built on Unity 6.5: a Spatial Entities package for plane detection, anchors, marker tracking and persistent spatial state, single-APK deployment across Galaxy XR and Xreal Aura, SpaceWarp motion vectors for uGUI and TextMeshPro, dimming control, trackpad input from the Aura puck, and an XR Hand Capture tool for recording gesture assets.[42]

Unreal Engine and Godot

Unreal Engine support became official with Developer Preview 4. Google's documentation targets Unreal Engine 5 and provides an Android XR OpenXR plugin for tracking and perception extensions plus an Android XR Extensions for Unreal package. The documentation, last updated on October 28, 2026, lists the extensions at version 1.1.0, supporting Unreal Engine 5.6.x and 5.8.x, with features including spatial entities, spatial and depth raycasting, viewport feathering, a light estimation cubemap, advanced hand mesh data and hardware-specific optimizations. Documented capabilities include scene meshing, trackables, object tracking, raycast, hand and eye tracking, face tracking, device anchor persistence, light estimation, passthrough camera state, depth texture and marker tracking.[43][28]

Godot support comes through the community-maintained Godot OpenXR Vendors plugin, which wraps the XR_ANDROID extensions (device anchor persistence, raycast, trackables, object tracking, scene meshing, face and eye tracking, passthrough camera state, depth texture, light estimation, performance metrics and an unbounded reference space) on top of Godot 4's built-in OpenXR hand tracking; projects need a minimum Android SDK of 34. Google's May 2026 post named Godot 4.6.2 or higher with Vendors plugin 5.1 and credited a partnership with the Godot Foundation and W4 Games.[44][28] On October 21, 2026, GodotVR published a release candidate of the plugin's version 5.2.0, which supports only Godot 4.6 and later and adds export of spatial container apps on Android XR, support for the XR_ANDROID_geospatial, XR_ANDROID_viewport_feathering and XR_ANDROID_global_passthrough_dimming extensions, and a setting for the Android XR spatial API version.[45]

OpenXR and WebXR

Android XR is an OpenXR 1.1 conformant platform, and every engine path above is built on OpenXR plus Google's XR_ANDROID vendor extensions; Google's developer site lists OpenXR as a development route in its own right, alongside Unity, Godot, Unreal Engine and WebXR.[11][1] Chrome on Android XR implements the WebXR standard, with depth maps exposed to web content from the first developer preview.[11]

Supported devices

Device Maker Form factor Status (October 2026) Source
Samsung Galaxy XR Samsung XR headset (Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2) On sale since October 21, 2025 in the US and South Korea, and in the UK since July 2026 (from £1,699); the only shipping Android XR device [17][18][15]
Xreal Aura (Project Aura) Xreal Wired XR glasses, 70-degree field of view Orders opened October 28, 2026 in the US, Canada and South Korea, with Google giving November 2 for Japan; first shipments planned for mid-November; launch prices US$1,099 (12 GB/256 GB) and US$1,299 (16 GB/512 GB) through December 2026, against regular prices of US$1,279 and US$1,499 announced on October 7; developer units through the Catalyst Program [21][22][23][19][20][46][30]
Samsung Intelligent Eyewear Samsung, with frames by Gentle Monster and Warby Parker Audio glasses (no display), described by Google as "built on the Android XR platform" Google said audio glasses would launch first, "later this fall"; a Samsung official told The Korea Herald the glasses launch in November 2026; no price announced as of early October 2026; SDK support via Jetpack Projected [47][48][49][14]
Display glasses Samsung, Gentle Monster, Warby Parker (announced partners) Glasses with an in-lens display Announced for 2026; no product on sale as of October 2026; SDK support via Jetpack Projected and Compose Glimmer [27][14]
Android XR Emulator Google Virtual headset, wired glasses, audio glasses, display glasses Emulators for XR glasses, audio glasses and display glasses announced as stable in Android Studio on October 28, 2026, when Android Studio Rabbit 2 became stable; Google's Android Studio setup guide for XR still recommends the latest Canary build [34][1][33][32]

Google's beta announcement in August 2026 told developers to build for the Galaxy XR or the emulator, reflecting that the headset was then the only Android XR hardware on sale.[15] That was still the case in mid-October 2026: Xreal's October 7 pricing announcement said Aura pre-orders would open later that month, and Samsung's Intelligent Eyewear was reported to be launching in November.[19][49] Xreal said in June 2026 that more than 100 applications built specifically for XR were in development for Aura, and 9to5Google listed titles including Project Hail Mary: Journey Among the Stars and Fallout: Factions among the announced software.[20][46] Road to VR's report on the October 28 launch said Aura was slated to ship with over 150 made-for-XR experiences.[22]

Adoption

At the Galaxy XR launch, several existing VR games were available on Android XR, including Walkabout Mini Golf, Synth Riders, Arizona Sunshine Remake and Arizona Sunshine 2, while 2D Android apps such as Netflix came through the Play Store.[17] Owlchemy Labs chief executive Andrew Eiche said in Unity's launch announcement that the studio brought "some of our biggest games to Android XR in about a week".[25]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 "Android XR". Android Developers. Google. https://developer.android.com/develop/xr. Retrieved 2026-11-02.
  2. ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 "XR SceneCore - Jetpack release notes". Android Developers. Google. https://developer.android.com/jetpack/androidx/releases/xr-scenecore. Retrieved 2026-11-02.
  3. ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 "XR ARCore - Jetpack release notes". Android Developers. Google. https://developer.android.com/jetpack/androidx/releases/xr-arcore. Retrieved 2026-11-02.
  4. ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 4.11 "XR Runtime - Jetpack release notes". Android Developers. Google. https://developer.android.com/jetpack/androidx/releases/xr-runtime. Retrieved 2026-11-02.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Matthew McCullough (2026-10-28). "Agentic and Flexible: A next era of Android development". Android Developers Blog. Google. https://developer.android.com/blog/posts/build-it-your-way-a-next-era-of-android-development. Retrieved 2026-11-02.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 6.8 "XR Compose - Jetpack release notes". Android Developers. Google. https://developer.android.com/jetpack/androidx/releases/xr-compose. Retrieved 2026-11-02.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 "XR Compose Material3 - Jetpack release notes". Android Developers. Google. https://developer.android.com/jetpack/androidx/releases/xr-compose-material3. Retrieved 2026-11-02.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 "XR Glimmer - Jetpack release notes". Android Developers. Google. https://developer.android.com/jetpack/androidx/releases/xr-glimmer. Retrieved 2026-11-02.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 "XR Projected - Jetpack release notes". Android Developers. Google. https://developer.android.com/jetpack/androidx/releases/xr-projected. Retrieved 2026-11-02.
  10. ↑ 10.00 10.01 10.02 10.03 10.04 10.05 10.06 10.07 10.08 10.09 10.10 10.11 10.12 "Develop with the Jetpack XR SDK". Android Developers. Google. https://developer.android.com/develop/xr/jetpack-xr-sdk. Retrieved 2026-11-02.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 11.6 11.7 11.8 Matthew McCullough (2024-12-12). "Introducing Android XR SDK Developer Preview". Android Developers Blog. Google. https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2024/12/introducing-android-xr-sdk-developer-preview.html. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 Matthew McCullough (2025-05-20). "Updates to the Android XR SDK: Introducing Developer Preview 2". Android Developers Blog. Google. https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2025/05/updates-to-android-xr-sdk-developer-preview.html. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Matthew McCullough (2025-12-08). "Build for AI Glasses with the Android XR SDK Developer Preview 3 and unlock new features for immersive experiences". Android Developers Blog. Google. https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2025/12/build-for-ai-glasses-with-android-xr.html. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 Stevan Silva and Amy Zeppenfeld (2026-05-19). "Updates to the Android XR SDK: Introducing Developer Preview 4". Android Developers Blog. Google. https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2026/05/android-xr-sdk-developer-preview-4-updates.html. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 Amy Zeppenfeld, Greg Underwood and Yasmine Evjen (2026-08-18). "Jetpack XR SDK core libraries reach beta: The next milestone for Android XR". Android Developers Blog. Google. https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2026/08/jetpack-xr-sdk-core-libraries-beta.html. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 Chris Steven (2026-10-08). "Android XR SDK's second release candidate adds no new APIs, only eight bug fixes". MIXED. https://mixed-news.com/en/android-xr-sdk-1-0-0-rc02-memory-leak-race-condition-fixes/. Retrieved 2026-10-14.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 David Heaney (2025-10-21). "Samsung Galaxy XR With Android XR Out Now For $1800, Controllers $250". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/samsung-galaxy-xr-google-android-xr-out-now/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 "Galaxy XR is Available to Buy Now in the UK". Samsung Newsroom U.K.. Samsung Electronics. 2026-07-10. https://news.samsung.com/uk/galaxy-xr-is-available-to-buy-now-in-the-uk. Retrieved 2026-10-14.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 Ben Schoon (2026-10-07). "XREAL Aura with Android XR start at $1,279". 9to5Google. https://9to5google.com/2026/10/07/xreal-aura-with-android-xr-start-at-1279/. Retrieved 2026-10-14.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 Scott Hayden (2026-06-17). "XREAL AURA AR Glasses Get Fall Release Window, $1,500 Price Ceiling". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/xreal-aura-release-date-price-1500/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Shahram Izadi (2026-10-28). "XREAL AURA: Wired XR glasses to watch, work, and play". The Keyword. Google. https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/platforms/android/xreal-aura/. Retrieved 2026-11-02.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 Scott Hayden (2026-10-28). "Android XR's First AR Glasses 'XREAL Aura' Launch Today, Starting at $1,100 for Limited Time". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/google-ar-glasses-xreal-aura-release-date-price/. Retrieved 2026-11-02.
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 Nicholas Sutrich (2026-10-28). "XREAL Aura is coming in November with a special $200-off launch discount". 9to5Google. https://9to5google.com/2026/10/28/xreal-aura-is-coming-in-november-with-a-special-200-off-launch-discount/. Retrieved 2026-11-02.
  24. ↑ Scott Hayden (2025-05-22). "Google Releases Updated Preview of Android XR Development Tools". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/google-updated-android-xr-developer-preview-2-release/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 "Unity Powers Launch Titles for Samsung's Galaxy XR And Accelerates the Android XR Ecosystem". Unity Technologies. 2025-10-21. https://investors.unity.com/news/news-details/2025/Unity-Powers-Launch-Titles-for-Samsungs-Galaxy-XR-And-Accelerates-the-Android-XR-Ecosystem/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  26. ↑ Matthew McCullough (2025-12-08). "Start building for glasses, new devices for Android XR and more in The Android Show - XR Edition". Android Developers Blog. Google. https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2025/12/start-building-for-glasses-new-devices.html. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 Shahram Izadi (2025-12-08). "The Android Show: New features for Galaxy XR and a look at future devices". The Keyword. Google. https://blog.google/products/android/android-show-xr-edition-updates/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 28.2 Luke Hopkins and Ryan Bartley (2026-05-19). "Android XR Updates for Unity, Unreal, and Godot". Android Developers Blog. Google. https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2026/05/android-xr-updates-unity-unreal-godot.html. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  29. ↑ 29.0 29.1 Stevan Silva and Vinny DaSilva (2026-06-15). "What's New in Android XR: Tooling, Engine Support, and Ecosystem Updates". Android Developers Blog. Google. https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2026/06/what-is-new-android-xr.html. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 Ben Schoon (2026-05-19). "XREAL's Android XR glasses will launch before the end of 2026, early access for devs". 9to5Google. https://9to5google.com/2026/05/19/xreal-project-aura-android-xr-developers-2026-launch/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  31. ↑ "Set up the Jetpack XR SDK". Android Developers. Google. https://developer.android.com/develop/xr/jetpack-xr-sdk/set-up-sdk. Retrieved 2026-11-02.
  32. ↑ 32.0 32.1 "Install and configure Android Studio for XR development". Android Developers. Google. https://developer.android.com/develop/xr/jetpack-xr-sdk/get-studio. Retrieved 2026-11-02.
  33. ↑ 33.0 33.1 Matthew Warner (2026-10-28). "Your favorite agents are now integrated in Android Studio". Android Developers Blog. Google. https://developer.android.com/blog/posts/ai-agents-android-studio-integration. Retrieved 2026-11-02.
  34. ↑ 34.0 34.1 "Create virtual XR headset and XR glasses devices". Android Developers. Google. https://developer.android.com/develop/xr/jetpack-xr-sdk/run/create-avds/xr-headsets-glasses. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  35. ↑ 35.0 35.1 35.2 "Develop with Unity for Android XR". Android Developers. Google. https://developer.android.com/develop/xr/unity. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  36. ↑ 36.0 36.1 Luke Hopkins (2025-10-23). "Getting started with Unity and Android XR". Android Developers Blog. Google. https://developer.android.com/blog/posts/getting-started-with-unity-and-android-xr. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  37. ↑ "Changelog - Unity OpenXR Android XR 1.3.2". Unity Documentation. Unity Technologies. 2026-08-26. https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/[email protected]/changelog/CHANGELOG.html. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  38. ↑ "Unity OpenXR: Android XR 1.3.2 - Package manual". Unity Documentation. Unity Technologies. https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/[email protected]/manual/index.html. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  39. ↑ "Changelog - Unity OpenXR Android XR". Unity Documentation. Unity Technologies. https://docs.unity3d.com/Packages/[email protected]/changelog/CHANGELOG.html. Retrieved 2026-11-02.
  40. ↑ "Android XR Extensions for Unity v1.4.0". GitHub. Google. 2026-07-30. https://github.com/android/android-xr-unity-package/releases/tag/v1.4.0. Retrieved 2026-10-14.
  41. ↑ "Android XR Unity Extensions v1.5.0". GitHub. Google. 2026-10-27. https://github.com/android/android-xr-unity-package/releases/tag/v1.5.0. Retrieved 2026-11-02.
  42. ↑ Leah Martin (2026-06-16). "Unity announces support for XREAL AURA". Unity Blog. Unity Technologies. https://unity.com/blog/unity-android-xr-wired-glasses-support. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  43. ↑ "Develop with Unreal Engine for Android XR". Android Developers. Google. https://developer.android.com/develop/xr/unreal. Retrieved 2026-11-02.
  44. ↑ "Develop with Godot for Android XR". Android Developers. Google. https://developer.android.com/develop/xr/godot. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  45. ↑ "godot_openxr_vendors 5.2.0-rc1". GitHub. GodotVR. 2026-10-21. https://github.com/GodotVR/godot_openxr_vendors/releases/tag/5.2.0-rc1. Retrieved 2026-11-02.
  46. ↑ 46.0 46.1 Ben Schoon (2026-06-16). "XREAL Aura Android XR glasses launch 'this fall' with $99 reserve". 9to5Google. https://9to5google.com/2026/06/16/xreal-aura-android-xr-reservations-games/. Retrieved 2026-09-20.
  47. ↑ "Samsung Brings Galaxy Ecosystem Into Everyday Eyewear". Samsung Global Newsroom. Samsung Electronics. 2026-07-22. https://news.samsung.com/global/samsung-brings-galaxy-ecosystem-into-everyday-eyewear. Retrieved 2026-10-14.
  48. ↑ Shahram Izadi (2026-05-19). "Intelligent eyewear is coming this fall". The Keyword. Google. https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/platforms/android/android-xr-io-2026/. Retrieved 2026-10-14.
  49. ↑ 49.0 49.1 Chris Steven (2026-10-02). "Samsung's first AI glasses launch in November, with no display and no price yet". MIXED. https://mixed-news.com/en/samsung-intelligent-eyewear-november-launch-no-display-no-price/. Retrieved 2026-10-14.
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