Google's Android XR is getting an AI feature that can turn any 2D content, including games streamed from your PC, into 3D in real-time.
Called System Autospatialization, Google formally announced the feature during The Android Show: XR Edition today, saying that it will arrive in 2026.
"Just imagine if every game was immersive, every YouTube video was immersive, if the entire web was immersive," Google teased.
Out of the box, other platforms like visionOS and Pico OS let you easily turn 2D photos 3D, but Google's Android XR is currently the only for headsets that does the same for video. That's not to say real-time spatialization doesn't exist anywhere else, with Viture virtual monitor glasses having a similar feature. But it's surprising that it's possible on the XR2+ Gen 2 chipset while it's also handling a full XR operating system.
Android XR System Autospatialization
Google says it will work for "pretty much any" app, and in multiple apps at once. The company's presentation depicted it being used for playing Cities: Skylines streamed from a PC, with the AI system being able to tell the difference between the foreground UI and background game world.
We'll be sure to test the feature out when it launches on Android XR for Samsung Galaxy XR next year.
David Heaney
