Samsung's XR headset will be the first to use ‘Hey Gemini' hotword

Samsung published its first XR headset, which is currently in prototype form. It is called ‘Project Moohan,. Moohan stands for Infinity in Korean. It will be the first device to run Android XR and the first to use the ‘Hey Gemini' hotword for voice commands.

Google says "In partnership with Samsung and Qualcomm, we announced Android XR, a platform to extend your reality to explore, connect and create in new ways."

The whole operating system is built around AI, and Gemini is the AI assistant that will come pre-installed on all devices running Android XR.

Samsung's XR headset will be the first device to run Android XR, it will be the first to use the ‘Hey Gemini' hotword for voice commands. For now you can access Google Assistant or Gemini by using the ‘Hey Google' hotword, but that will change in the future.

Every demos from Google for Samsung's XR headset and Android XR used the ‘Hey Gemini' hotword to start the onboard AI-powered digital voice assistant. Since Google is planning to completely replace Google Assistant with Gemini, this move seems to be a part of that.

New Samsung models likely to come with buit-in AI and it will be Google's Gemini. With this move Google can sure-pass Chat-Gpt and be the number one. What Chat-Gpt will do now?

This new head set will be available for purchase in the next year. It will be more light to carry and cheaper than Apple.

Because it will have the Android XR interface, Samsung’s headset is expected to offer all new features from Gemini AI including the ability to use Circle to Search with gestures, viewing videos and photos on a virtual display using Google TV and Google Photos, or live translation and an immersive version of Google Maps.

Pricing and other details around the device are still unknown but it will be available for purchase next year.

Meanwhile, Google said it is also working with other companies like Magic Leap on upcoming XR products that will have both AI and mixed reality features.

Building the XR ecosystem

Android XR is designed to be an open, unified platform for XR headsets and glasses. For users, this means more choice of devices and access to apps they already know and love. For developers, it’s a unified platform with opportunities to build experiences for a wide range of devices using familiar Android tools and frameworks.

I've used many VR and AR headsets and had a lot of experiences. But I've never worn one with an all-seeing, all-listening AI companion by my side until this week when I got my first taste at Google's headquarters in New York City.

Android XR, which is available in early form for developers now and will fully launch in 2025, promises a whole OS for headsets and glasses of all types and is a bridge to Android phones. But its killer app, the one Google is clearly banking on, is its AI, Gemini. From what I've seen, it's a heck of a sign of how much headsets and glasses will be changing in the next few years… but I still have a lot of questions about how it'll fit into everyday life.

What I remember most clearly afterward, my head buzzing with an hour's worth of demo memories in headset and glasses, is wandering through worlds with the persistence of an AI companion. For instance, I was standing on a 3D map of my own neighborhood, my home below me. I pinched and zoomed, hovering over my roof, until I could see the horizon and some buildings a few streets away. I pointed to them.

"What's that building over there?" I asked.

"That's the high school," Gemini said, identifying my town's school name.

I get closer and ask about the municipal building next door too. We explored my town together, Gemini and I, in a new Samsung mixed-reality headset that feels a lot like Apple's Vision Pro headset. But as I asked Gemini to take me to other places -- beyond Maps to Chrome or YouTube, where it helped me recognize things in videos, or narrated scenes on the fly -- or even pointed out and searched for things in the real world in a constructed living room space at Google's New York headquarters -- I started to lose track of what app I was in. Gemini was always with me, though. And after a few demos, Gemini even told me what I'd done and jogged my memory in case I forgot.