In 2022, it emerged that Google was working on an AR headset called “Project Iris.” A new report now says Iris was actually a plan to build smart glasses that has since been canceled.
Google Iris smart glasses
According to Business Insider, Google is not currently working on its own pair of smart glasses after canceling “Iris” earlier this year. The plan was to “build and launch Iris as its own product.”
Insiders say Google leaders kept changing the strategy for the Iris glasses when they were in development, which led to the team continually pivoting, frustrating many employees.
That decision was the result of “layoffs, reshuffles, and the departure of Clay Bavor,” who led AR/VR efforts and was at the company for 18 years.
We reported in February that AR efforts previously under Bavor were moved into Hiroshi Lockheimer’s Platforms & Ecosystems (Android, Chrome/OS, etc.) division and Rick Osterloh’s Devices & Services (Pixel, Nest, Chromecast).
Before this latest development, it looked like Google had a clear plan for AR hardware. It acquired North in 2020, and Business Insider‘s report says that “an early version of Iris closely resembled North’s first device, the Focals.” I/O 2022 ended with Google saying it was very interested in AR, offering a brief demo of translation glasses, which Insider says was another/later version of Iris.
In mid-2022, Google announced that it would start testing AR prototypes in the real world. In October of that year, the company started using Glass Enterprise paired with a Tensor-powered Pixel phone to test AR features, like Google Tasks, language translation, and a camera app. This seemed like a way for Google to do public testing of AR concepts using existing hardware. (In March of this year, Google discontinued Glass Enterprise Edition entirely, and that decision makes some sense in retrospect.)
Two Google employees told Business Insider that Iris might be resurrected in the future and that work on AR tech continues.
Android XR
In terms of Google’s efforts in AR, the company is now working to replicate the Android-OEM playbook for the new form factor. The report says, “Google has focused on creating software platforms for AR that it hopes to license to other manufacturers building headsets.”
This is what Samsung and Google announced in February, with another mention at I/O. As of last month, Google said to expect more later this year.
In fact, what leaked about Iris — a headset that looked like ski goggles with Stadia-esque streaming tech — in 2022 was “actually the foundations of a separate AR project” that became the Samsung XR partnership.
Business Insider reports that Samsung’s upcoming headset is “a direct response to fears of what Apple was working on.”
Besides Android XR, Google is also working on something dubbed “micro XR” for glasses with that software/OS running on a “prototyping platform known internally as Betty.”
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