There's a bit of a buzz around Android XR (Extended Reality) right now: the Samsung Galaxy XR headset just got its official unveiling, and now Google and Magic Leap have been showing off a prototype pair of smart glasses running Android XR.

Yes, that's the same Magic Leap that released an augmented reality headset several years ago, which arrived with a lot of hype but ultimately didn't prove to be a hit. Now the company is trying again, with Google on board too.

The smart glasses were shown off at the Future Investment Initiative expo event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, as reported by Android Authority and others. It's the first time we've seen hardware from the Google and Magic Leap partnership announced last year.

As per the press release, the device combines Magic Leap's waveguides and optics with Google's Raxium microLED light engine, resulting in visuals that can be put in front of the line of vision of the user.

With added AI

"The prototypes worn on stage illustrate how comfortable, stylish smart eyewear is possible and the video showed the potential for users to stay present in the real world while tapping into the knowledge and functionality of multimodal AI," says Magic Leap.

As you might have guessed, Gemini AI is involved. One of the examples shown on stage was shopping for rugs: the smart specs were able to analyze the rugs that were in view, and answer questions about them.

With cameras, mics, and speakers built into the glasses, this is all pretty similar to what we've seen before from Google's Project Astra and Ray-Ban Meta glasses, but it's interesting to see new hardware being shown off.

There's no indication of when we might actually get to see these Android XR glasses launch though – these specs are very much at the prototype stage. Samsung has its own smart specs on the way, which are due in 2026.

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