Google kills its AR rival to Apple Vision

Failure of Project Iris comes months after Google Glass was discontinued for enterprise users

A video showing off Google’s augmented reality glasses was shared during the tech giant’s Google I/O developers conference in 2022 (Google )

Google has scrapped its latest augmented reality (AR) headset that was meant to rival headsets from Apple and Meta, according to reports.

The search giant’s ‘Project Iris’ was abandoned earlier this year, Insider reported, making it the second major set of smart glasses to be ditched following Google Glass.

The latest AR glasses were first teased last year at Google I/O, with a video showing wearers using the device to translate conversations in real-time.

“What we’re working on is technology that enables us to break down language barriers,” Max Spear, a product manager at Google, said in the video.

“Making access to information just instant and intuitive, and by doing that technology fades into the background.”

Since the glasses were teased, Apple has unveiled its Vision Pro headset and Meta has shown off its latest Quest 3 goggles, which will be available later this year.

Google’s aborted project comes eight years after the firm discontinued its Glass smart glasses for consumers, and just months after it stopped producing the enterprise version.

It follows the departure of Clay Bavor, Google’s chief of augmented and virtual reality, with the company’s focus now switching to AR software rather than hardware.

One AR software platform is Android XR, which is being built for a headset under development at Samsung. A Micro XR platform is also rumoured to be in the works, which is expected to run on AR smart glasses rather than larger mixed reality goggles.

One unnamed employee told Insider that Google was aiming to created the “Android for AR”, referring to the tech giant’s hugely popular mobile operating system.

A spokesperson for Google declined to comment.

Samsung announced at its Galaxy Unpacked event in February that it had partnered with Google and Qualcomm to make a mixed reality platform.

No details were given about what the product might look like, with the company saying more information would be given later this year.

“We are working to create a new era of highly immersive digital experiences that blur the line between our physical and digital worlds,” said Qualcomm’s Cristiano Amon.

“With our Snapdragon XR tech, Samsung’s amazing products, and Google experiences, we have the foundation to make this opportunity a reality.”