Google and XREAL launch AURA Android XR glasses

Google and XREAL have officially launched XREAL AURA, the first wired XR glasses powered by Android XR. Transparent lenses keep the real world in view while projecting spatial content across a 70-degree field of view. The glasses weigh under 95 grams and connect by cable to a portable compute puck holding the battery. The puck also debuts Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Reality Elite platform. Gemini can understand what the wearer sees and does in the physical world and on screens, supporting natural conversations and help across apps.

AURA supports millions of Google Play apps, including more than 150 made for XR. Users can arrange a browser, documents, music and other apps in windows of different sizes, pair a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, or use the puck as a trackpad. Wired Mirroring brings a laptop display into a resizable window through a USB-C cable with video output, with no software installation required. It can sit beside Android XR apps, and Google says only the wearer can see the display. Gemini can work across visible apps and the laptop window, tidy the layout or brainstorm about visible material. Share your view now lets Gemini highlight where to focus in the room or on screen.

For entertainment, users can position YouTube, Google TV and streaming screens anywhere in view. The lenses can dim, then return to transparency when someone appears. Support includes 180- and 360-degree video, 3D films, and XR films and performances such as Nevatars, Galapagos: the Last Eden and the San Francisco Ballet’s Nutcracker. Spatial view can turn nearly any video, photo or game into 3D with a tap and now handles higher-resolution content. Window follow can keep an app centered or shift it into a mini view while walking. Google Photos will add a hand-navigable spatial gallery this year, including memories shown in 3D.

Gaming spans mobile and tablet titles from Google Play, plus handheld or PC games brought in through Wired Mirroring, with other apps available alongside them. Separately, Gemini can help with an Android game or a game streamed from a PC or console. XR titles from Owlchemy Labs and Resolution Games use hand controls, while new releases include Fallout Factions and Project Hail Mary: Journey Among the Stars.

XREAL AURA is for users aged 18 and older. Orders opened on October 28 in the US, Canada and Korea, with Japan following on November 2. Launch pricing starts at $1,099 through the end of the year, and shipments begin in mid-November. US buyers can order through XREAL or BestBuy.com, while buyers in the other launch regions can order through XREAL. Google is directing businesses to its Android Enterprise Blog for deployment options. The release pairs XREAL’s lightweight glasses and compute puck with Google’s Android XR app ecosystem and Gemini.

Sources and related context

• XREAL AURA product details: Supports: XREAL's product page confirms the Android XR platform, 70-degree field of view, optical see-through lenses and separate computing puck.

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