Forget Unity! Android XR Development Just Got Easier

[@whynotcode]

Happy New Year! 🥳 Who's hype for Android XR? Y'all think it can compete with Quest?

[@yuartv]

Hi, actually pretty nice video you made. I have a question - does this Android XR thingy work in emulator only for now? And this is not a thing for mobile (so this is not a replacement for ARCore)?

[@whynotcode]

@@yuartv thanks for watching! Don't forget to subscribe! The preview XR SDK only works in the Android Meerkat XR emulator and it won't work on a regular phone (unlike the old cardboard / Daydream VR support). Google is going to host in person XR developer sessions that devs can sign up for and maybe get a chance to work on the actual hardware. No this is completely a different framework than ARCore, it's using the OpenXR standard for the mixed reality features. But we'll likely get the Project Moohan Samsung headset shipping after Google IO in the spring I'd guess.

[@josemarques3454]

I think 2025 will be the VR year.

[@whynotcode]

Definitely! And if the rumors about Vision Pro adding support for PSVR2 controllers is true, things are going to get very competitive in this space! Once the Apple Vision consumer priced device comes out, we're really going to have an all out war between Meta, Google, and Apple! For sure the next 2-3 years are going to be crazy as we also watch AI get better and better!

[@NicollasVerneck]

I wonder if these apps could be side loaded to a meta quest 3

[@whynotcode]

@@NicollasVerneck Good question! I'm guessing part of the implementation of the Scenecore library behind Jetpack Compose XR has to be built into the system otherwise you're right, the APK would be able to run on Quest given it's use of the OpenXR standard and Vulkan graphics API (through the Google Filament rendering library). It wouldn't make much sense to have every APK package the same XR rendering library so I have to imagine it depends on system libraries and would not run on Quest.

[@whynotcode]

@@NicollasVerneck side note: Meta also released its own Kotlin XR API for Quest ahead of the Google announcement to try to compete with Android XR. It's called the Meta Spatial SDK and ironically it has much more samples and tools than Google's official Android XR SDK.