We’re thrilled to announce that experimental support for Android XR is now available! Whether you’re ready to port an app or create something new, Android XR empowers you to build immersive experiences using the tools you know and love: AR Foundation, XR Interaction Toolkit, OpenXR, and XR Hands.
Android XR is an exciting new ecosystem that unlocks endless possibilities for developers to create immersive applications. With foundational features such as occlusion, eye and hand tracking, and support for industry standards like OpenXR and Vulkan, it’s designed to create a smooth and intuitive development experience. On top of that, Android XR introduces unique, Android-specific tools like light estimation and performance metrics to help you optimize and enhance your applications.
We collaborated closely with Google to make Unity development for Android XR the best experience possible - and this is just the beginning.
- AR Foundation: Implement features like Occlusion & Persistent Anchors in a cost-effective way using AR Foundation
- XR Interaction Toolkit: Leverage natural hand poses and gestures for intuitive interactions using the XR Interaction Toolkit
- XR Hands: Add custom gesture detection for actions like thumbs up, thumbs down, pointing, and more using XR Hands
- Graphics: Access to advanced graphics features & optimizations like Foveated Rendering and URP Spacewarp to ensure your content looks great and runs smoothly
- Onboarding: Utilize project templates and documentation to jumpstart your development and get started quickly
Unity 6: New Features to Power Your XR Development
Android XR is compatible with Unity 6.0 or higher, which introduces exciting advancements to the XR ecosystem:
- Eye-Gazed Foveated Rendering: Leverage eye tracking to dynamically adjust rendering focus, optimizing both visual clarity and GPU performance for smoother, more immersive experiences.
- Composition Layers: Achieve clearer text, sharper outlines, and an overall better appearance with this feature that significantly reduces rendering artifacts.
- URP Spacewarp: Reduces your application’s rendering workload, freeing up resources for higher-quality graphics and improved performance.
What’s Coming in Unity 6.1
Unity 6.1 will introduce even more features for Android XR developers, including:
- Multiplayer Templates: Dive into VR and MR multiplayer development with a VR template designed for networked interactions, voice chat, lobbies, and more. For Mixed Reality, try out a new tabletop game example, combining XR support and end-to-end multiplayer solutions.
- Build Profiles for Android XR: Streamline project configuration with dedicated build profiles. These profiles optimize settings for Android XR development, and you can customize, save, and share them with your team for a consistent build experience.
Android XR’s build profile in Unity 6.1
Getting Started
Check out our documentation to learn more about Unity features for Android XR development. You can also explore additional features with the Google-maintained Android XR Extensions for Unity package. Be sure to read our blog post, 6 Ways to Start Building for Android XR, for additional tips and developer insights!
Prerequisites
Before diving in, ensure your project meets the prerequisites:
- Unity Version: Unity 6000.0.23f1 or newer.
- Android Build Module: Add this when installing Unity 6, or add to an existing Unity 6 install.
- Packages: OpenXR: Android XR v0.4.3-exp.1 or newer, AR Foundation v6.1.0-pre.3 or newer, OpenXR v1.13.0 or newer.
- Graphics Settings: We recommend using URP with Vulkan as your rendering API to optimize performance on Android XR.
Reporting Bugs
Before submitting a bug, check if it’s already been reported here, otherwise, your bug may be closed as a duplicate if a similar one exists. Please report bugs via the Unity Bug Reporter in the Unity Editor, and provide as much context as possible so we can rapidly triage the issue. When submitting a bug, please:
- Link to a hosted image or video that clearly shows or explains the issue, including expected vs. actual results.
- Attach a (stripped) project so we can easily recreate your issue.
- Attach Profiler .data and Profile Analyzer .pdata files where possible.
- After filing your bug, open a Discussions topic if you believe the community would benefit. In the topic name, it helps to use your bug name and issue # to make it easier to identify
Share Your Feedback
As you begin building, we’d love to hear from you—join the conversation in Unity Discussions and use the #AndroidXR tag to share your experiences, provide feedback, and let us know how we can make Android XR support even better.
If you have any feature requests, please share your ideas here. Your feedback will be carefully reviewed by the team, and provides a significant impact in driving the direction of the product.
A Reminder: Android XR is currently an experimental package. Experimental packages are not supported for production, but provide early access to get started. This also helps us make progress on development through your feedback. For more information on experimental packages, visit this guide.
We can’t wait to see what you create!
