spatialcomputing.info

We’ve been waiting to hear about Samsung’s entrance into XR for a few years now, with the company’s still unnamed mixed reality headset ‘Project Moohan’ set to debut sometime this year running Google’s Android XR operating system. Now, a report from ETNews (Korean) maintains the South Korean tech giant may also have a pair of XR glasses up its sleeves.

Citing industry sources, the report alleges Samsung is developing XR glasses (noted as ‘smart glasses’ in the report—more on that below) with the goal of releasing them by the end of the year.

Samsung is reportedly now finalizing functions and specs of the device, which is said to be codenamed ‘Haen’ (‘coast’ or ‘seashore’ in Korean).

“With Apple’s Vision Pro already on the market, Samsung’s focus will be on providing a more advanced user experience,” an industry insider told ETNews.

Notably, the report doesn’t specify precisely what sort of device Haen is, which is why we’re simply calling them ‘XR glasses’ for now.

The report refers to the device as a pair of ‘smart glasses’ (machine translated from Korean), however this is sometimes used interchangeably to refer to two types of devices—AR glasses like Meta Orion, which blend digital images with the user’s physical surroundings, and smart glasses, which typically have a more simplistic heads-up display, like the now retired Google Glass. You can find out more about the differences between smart glasses and AR glasses here.

Since the report doesn’t specify Haen’s specific functions, we’ve referred to them as XR glasses for now.

While reports should generally be taken with a grain of salt, ETNews was the outlet that broke the news that LG was shaking up its XR product division, confirming that talks with Meta were going in a seemingly unplanned direction. Meta had tapped LG in February 2024 to partner on XR software and hardware, which at the time was rumored to include LG manufacturing a Vision Pro competitor for Meta. LG has since confirmed it’s closing its XR product division, instead focusing on long-term R&D.

Still, this isn’t the first time we’ve heard Samsung was getting ready to enter the XR glasses market. In 2021, Microsoft leaker ‘WalkingCat’ posted two leaked videos showing off futuristic AR concept devices from the company. Samsung has also filed a number of trademarks over the years, with its most recent ‘Galaxy Glasses’ patent filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

Then, a report from South Korea’s Yonhap News last year alleged Samsung would unveil a pair of XR glasses at the the company’s Unpacked product event in January, which unfortunately didn’t materialize. Small recompense: Samsung did show off a slide featuring XR glasses as a part of its future roadmap.

The device mentioned in the Yonhap News report was said to include a payment function, gesture recognition, and facial recognition, noting that it was expected to launch around Q3 2025. Still, no mention of displays, or specific functions that would delineate it as smart glasses of AR glasses as such.

Whatever the case, Samsung seems to be gearing up to make the best use of its partnership with Google to integrate Android XR into its next big entry into the segment, Project Moohan.

Until now, we’ve gotten a hands-on with Moohan, and even seen a “near-final” version of the hardware back at Unpacked 2025 in January, although its launch date and actual name is still under wraps.

Provided Samsung wants to make a splash, it could reveal the device at a number of venues: Google’s upcoming I/O conference in May, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Summit in October/November, or even a hypothetical special event dedicated to both Moohan and possibly its XR glasses efforts.