Google confirms its new XR product with Samsung will get its own moment (Update)

Ryan McLeod / Android Authority

Update: May 15, 2024 (1:43 PM ET): A previous version of this story called Google’s upcoming XR product a headset. Google has since clarified to Android Authority that company executive Sameer Samat called it a new form factor for Android rather than a headset. We’ve updated the story to reflect this and apologize for the error.

We’re curious to see what this product looks like nonetheless, especially in light of the company demonstrating its Project Astra chatbot on smart glasses.

Original article: May 15, 2024 (1:00 PM ET): Samsung confirmed plans for a new XR device back in February 2023, powered by Android and a Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset. So when will the product actually be launching? Well, it’s skipping Google I/O.

Google revealed during a media briefing that the XR device wouldn’t be launched at Google I/O but would instead get a “separate moment.”

“I/O’s got a lot in it, as you can tell. So we are going to be doing something at another time to introduce this new form factor to the world. We just thought that it deserved a separate moment — its own moment — because there’s so much there to share,” Android ecosystem president Sameer Samat told journalists ahead of the Google I/O conference.

The company didn’t dish out a launch window for the product, so it’s anyone’s guess as to when we’ll see it. But it stands to reason that we’ll hear more details about the device at Samsung’s second Unpacked event of the year, which takes place in Q3.

We don’t know much else about the product just yet, save for the fact that it uses Android and the recently announced Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 Plus Gen 2 chipset.

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