When Samsung’s Android XR headset might launch

Samsung ended this week’s launch of the Fold 6 and Galaxy Watch Ultra with a tease that its new XR platform is “coming this year.” A new report offers more details on when that Samsung Android XR headset might launch.

According to Business insiderThe current internal timeline for the Samsung-built, Qualcomm-powered Android XR headset — codenamed “Moohan” — includes a developer build releasing in October, followed by a consumer launch in March 2025.

There are no other details today about the upcoming availability, including how it will be announced and what exactly will be shown off. For instance, will there be a consumer keynote if October serves as the public announcement? Or will the hardware be shrouded in secrecy and announced by Samsung at a later date, with the fall focus on Android XR to encourage developers to optimize their apps?

The headset was initially scheduled to launch in the first quarter of this year, with the Apple Vision Pro due to arrive in February, but was repeatedly delayed as company executives “were concerned the device wasn’t yet good enough to wow users.”

Looking forward:

There is internal speculation that Samsung will be the first to also build glasses with Google’s AR software, according to two employees familiar with the matter.

Google itself has no plans to make consumer XR hardware. An employee in today’s report said, “Google is out of the first-party glasses game for the foreseeable future.” In January, Google laid off its first-party augmented reality hardware team, which was believed to be working on Iris. That project was a result of the North acquisition in 2020 and was canceled in June 2023.

This decision may convince partners that Google will not compete with its own hardware in the near future.

Google, along with the microLED company Raxium it acquired in 2022, has been prototyping displays to show off its software to partners. (The demonstration of Project Astra glasses at I/O might be seen as an example of that rather than an actual project direction.) Last month, as part of a broader reorganization, that displays team was spun off into the Android XR division.

Now that Samsung has set the date this week, hopefully everything is on schedule and there will be no further delays.