Here’s how Google is laying the foundation for our mixed reality future

Today, during the XR edition of The Android Show, Google showed off a bunch of updates and new features headed to its mixed reality OS. And while most of the news was aimed at developers, I got a chance to demo some of the platform’s expanded capabilities on a range of hardware including Samsung’s Galaxy XR headset, two different reference designs and an early version of Xreal’s Project Aura smart glasses and I came away rather impressed. So here’s a rundown of what I saw and how it will impact the rapidly growing ecosystem of head-mounted displays.First up was one of Google’s reference design smart glasses with a single waveguide RGB display built into its right lens. I’ve included a picture of it here, but try not to read too deeply into its design or aesthetics, as this device is meant to be a testbed for Android XR features and not an early look at upcoming models.Try not to read too much into the appearance of Google’s reference design smart glasses, as they are explicitly labeled