The first clip of Xreal's Project Aura in use has been revealed.
A concept render was shown at Google I/O earlier this year when Project Aura was first announced as the second Android XR device, set to launch next year.
It's a prism-lens see-through device in a form factor that tries to imitate the basic appearance of sunglasses, as with Xreal's existing products. But while Xreal's current products primarily act as a virtual monitor for your existing devices, via the included cable, Project Aura will come with a tethered compute puck running Google's Android XR on a Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2 chipset, the same inside Samsung Galaxy XR.
Xreal says Project Aura will have a field of view of 70 degrees diagonal, its widest yet, and have built-in head and hand tracking.
Most features and apps available on Galaxy XR will also run on Project Aura's puck, with some notable exceptions such as the face-tracked Likeness realistic avatars, as Aura doesn't have face tracking.
Today, during The Android Show: XR Edition, Google and Xreal showed off the device in a short clip. They also confirmed that it's still on track to launch in 2026 – just days after internal Meta memos leaked revealing that its headset with a tethered puck is delayed to 2027.
Note that while Xreal devices are designed to look like sunglasses, they sit much further out from your eyes than real glasses, and thus are a markedly different device category than the AR glasses in development at Meta and Apple. Those future AR glasses use a display technology called waveguides to sit as close to your eyes as regular glasses, while Xreal uses a far cheaper but also far bulkier optical approach. They also block out most light, so can't be used as regular indoor prescription glasses.
Essentially, you can think of Project Aura as a lightweight alternative to Samsung Galaxy XR that trades off field of view and opacity for sleekness, rather than competition for future outdoor AR glasses.
The confirmation that Project Aura is still set to ship in 2026 comes one month after Lynx revealed that Google terminated its Android XR deal. After Samsung, Lynx, Xreal, and Sony were the three companies Google had earlier confirmed were working on Android XR products. While declining to comment on the Lynx situation, Google confirmed that it's still working with Sony, though we've yet to see even a tease of a Sony Android XR device, and its SRH-S1 headset runs Sony's own fork of Android.
UploadVRDavid Heaney
The first major update for Google's Android XR on Samsung Galaxy XR is rolling out now.
The update brings a beta release of Google's Persona-like realistic avatar system for video calls, called Likeness, a Travel Mode, and a beta for a built-in PC remote desktop feature for Windows called PC Connect.
UploadVRDavid HeaneyLikeness is Google's realistic avatar system for video calls in Android XR, an equivalent to the original non-spatial mode of Apple Vision Pro's Personas.
Your Likeness replaces the video feed that apps would normally get from a phone's selfie camera, providing a virtual equivalent, and should thus work for any video calling platform without developer implementation.
Android XR's Likeness on Samsung Galaxy XR.
Unlike with Vision Pro, you scan your face for Likeness by holding up your phone, not the headset itself. From here, the data is transferred to and securely stored on the headset. The Likeness app is currently only available on "select Android device models".
In video calls on Android XR, your Likeness is driven by Galaxy XR's eye tracking and face tracking capabilities in real-time, and the feed shows a virtual representation of your hands when you hold them up too.
Android XR now has a Travel Mode, which when enabled, makes the positional tracking work properly on moving vehicles, such as planes and trains.
Apple was the first to launch this feature, alongside Vision Pro, and since then Meta, Pico, and Snap have followed.
Android XR's Travel Mode
Without a Travel Mode, the accelerometer and gyroscope in the headset's IMU will interpret the acceleration, orientation changes, and vibrations of the vehicle as your head movement, causing virtual objects and windows to drift off in the opposite direction.
Travel Mode works by having the headset rely more on computer vision from the cameras, typically incurring a small loss in tracking quality.
PC Connect (beta) is a feature that lets you connect to and control your Windows PC as a virtual screen in Android XR.
PC Connect on Android XR
After installing the streamer app on your PC, you can mirror your entire desktop or one window.
There are already many third-party apps on the Google Play Store that can do this, including Guy Godin's Virtual Desktop, but PC Connect offers a built-in option.
UploadVRDavid HeaneyMeta has a partnership with Microsoft for an officially supported Windows 11 remote desktop system, leveraging the operating system's RDP system, with support for virtual extra monitors and multiple aspect ratios. Android XR's PC Connect doesn't seem to have Microsoft's involvement, and seems more basic for now, at least in beta, lacking these more advanced options.
We'll keep a close eye on Google through 2026 for further Android XR updates, such as whether a spatial version of Likeness arrives or advanced virtual monitor options for PC Connect.
UploadVRDavid Heaney
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