Google is paying HTC $250 million in cash for a deal that will give the bigger company's plans for Android XR a boost. Under the terms of their agreement, some members of the HTC Vive engineering team will be joining Google,

Google’s current focus at the moment outside of AI is their new Android XR platform, where they see an opportunity to jump at the hype of mixed reality headsets after seeing the success Meta has had with its Meta Quest products and partnership with Ray-Ban.

Samsung’s TM Roh has been hyping up Android XR in a recent interview, and made comments which suggest that Google is aware of the importance of building a solid software backing for its fledgling platform. If these words translate into action then Android XR could be the first real rival to Horizon OS.