Android XR's April update brought new bugs, but Google's working on fixes

Android XR is a young platform, with the first headset to run Google’s mixed-reality operating system hitting store shelves late last year. Google’s been keeping early adopters up to speed on new Android XR developments over on Reddit, and today confirmed that it’s aware of and working on some of XR’s biggest growing pains.

In a post on the Android XR subreddit, Google’s Grace Yang shared that the Android XR team is actively working to fix two issues that have been prevalent for users since the platform’s April update: unreliable head tracking and problems with resolution in certain VR content.

According to a community post Yang links to, the April Android XR update has been interfering with headset tracking across the UI, both in Android XR’s menus as well as in apps. Reddit user Alexis_Evo says the new “hitches” in tracking have made their “headset almost unusable.” Several commenters on the thread report similar issues.

In another post, user nucleiis says that resolution in apps that run in VR180 (a virtual reality format with content that spans 180 degrees in a half-sphere shape in front of the user) has been slashed, “capped at 50% or lower.” The result is visibly pixelated video.

Yang didn’t have updates to share on the progress of fixes for these issues, only saying that the Android XR team “is looking into these.” Ideally, that should mean a fix will be out soon; experience-dampening bugs are never ideal for users, but they’re especially rough in an $1,800 device like the Samsung Galaxy XR headset.

If you’re an Android XR user and you’re having issues, keep an eye on the subreddit (and right here on Android Authority) for any updates about potential fixes.