Google’s Android 17 update includes highlights like new floating “Bubble” app windows for easier multitasking, a Screen Reaction recording mode, and a 50/50 split gaming mode for foldable phones. Meanwhile, Wear OS 7 brings Live Updates and better battery life for smart watches, and it prepares connections for new Android XR smart glasses that will launch this fall. 

The update is rolling out to Pixel phones first, then other devices, with some features, like Gemini Intelligence, set to debut later this year.

Follow along here for the latest updates.

• Android 17 arrives on Pixel phones today
• Android foldables are getting new gamepad controls.
• Google launches Wear OS 7 with Live Updates and a battery life boost
• The Google / Xreal Aura XR glasses are now available to preorder
• Android 17 is getting its own version of Apple’s Handoff
• Wear OS 7 will keep track of deliveries and sports scores on your wrist
• A first (and second) look at the Android XR glasses launching this year
• The 9 biggest new features in Android 17
• A new Android 17 beta reveals plans for “Pixel Glow” light animations.
• Android 17 will let you share one-time location data with apps.
• The second Android 17 beta is out now for Google Pixel.
• Google and Xreal extend hardware partnership for Android XR.
• A first look at Google’s Project Aura glasses built with Xreal
• Google announces Android XR, a new OS for headsets and smart glasses

Google's Wear OS 7 update is starting to roll out today for the Pixel Watch 2, 3, and 4, adding a new Live Updates feature that tracks live events from your Android smartwatch. Live Updates will now sync with Wear OS devices, so updates like sports scores or an ongoing meal delivery will show up on both your watch and your phone.

You might also notice your watch lasting a little longer - Google claims Wear OS 7 offers up to 10 percent more battery life than Wear OS 6.

Wear OS 7 will also introduce some new Gemini Intelligence features, but Google says these aren't launching until "later this year." They'll include Create My Widget, which …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Now that we're clear of WWDC and all of the new AI-powered features coming to Apple's platforms, Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman has more details about rumored new hardware, like the camera-equipped AirPods he'd previously written about. He says they are currently on schedule for a late 2027 launch, and that while we're checking out beta releases for this fall's iOS 27 update, the new earbuds are internally being tested with next year's update, iOS 28.

With cameras mounted in their stems and lights to indicate when data is being uploaded to the cloud, they could give the upgraded version of Siri "visual context" about your surroundings, be …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Smart glasses are still a nascent category, but chipmaker Qualcomm is hard at work upgrading the silicon to power the next wave of XR devices: the Snapdragon Reality Elite.

Although Qualcomm is announcing the chip today at Augmented World Expo, we've technically already gotten a hands-on with a device powered by the new chip at last month's Google I/O: the forthcoming Aura glasses for Android XR. At the time, Xreal and Google were coy about the processor upgrades to the long-awaited spectacles. Turns out, it was the Reality Elite.

Spec-wise, the new chip focuses on across-the-board performance upgrades. The GPU gets a 60 percent bump, the …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Snap is finally launching augmented glasses for the public. Specs, which Snap describes as "a wearable computer built into see-through augmented reality glasses," will cost $2,195. You can preorder a pair of Specs now at specs.com with a $200 refundable deposit, and Snap says they're expected to ship "this fall" in the US, UK, and France.

This is a big moment for Snap: The company made a big entry into smart glasses with its original Spectacles in 2016, and the company has been toiling away on nonpublic AR versions of Spectacles over the past few years. CEO Evan Spiegel promised the company would launch consumer AR glasses in 2026 and even …

Read the full story at The Verge.