This Week in VR: Smart Glasses Took Over, H3VR2 Stole the Show, and Developers Got New Tools

This was one of those weeks where the news cycle felt like it was moving faster than anyone could keep up with. Smart glasses dominated the headlines across multiple fronts, a beloved VR franchise announced its sequel, two major developer tool updates shipped, and a controller sold out in 30 minutes. Here is everything that happened.

Samsung Galaxy Glasses leaked through a software update

Samsung accidentally revealed its upcoming smart glasses through a routine update to the Nearby Device Scanning app on Galaxy phones. Firmware analysis uncovered two models in development: Jinju, a display-less AI-first pair running on Snapdragon AR1 with a 12-megapixel Sony IMX681 camera, priced between $379 and $499, and Haean, a premium model with a micro-LED display targeting 2027 at $600 to $900. The Jinju model weighs approximately 50 grams and features Gemini AI integration. A Galaxy Unpacked unveil in July looks likely. Full story

Apple is testing four smart glasses designs

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported that Apple is actively testing four frame styles for AI smart glasses: large rectangular, slim rectangular (similar to what Tim Cook wears), large oval, and small oval. The frames are made from premium acetate with a vertically oriented oval camera system. No display. Deep Siri and Apple Intelligence integration with a second wide-angle camera for hand gesture recognition. An unveil at the iPhone 18 event in September 2026 is possible, with retail availability in 2027. Full story

IDC data confirms glasses are outselling VR headsets 3 to 1

The numbers tell the story. Global XR shipments grew 44.4% in 2025 to 14.5 million units, but smart glasses drove nearly all of that growth. Smart glasses surged 110% year-over-year in H1 2025 while VR and MR headsets declined 14%. Meta Quest shipments fell 42.3%. Ray-Ban Meta has sold more than 2 million units since launch, with sales tripling in Q2 2025. The market has tipped decisively toward glasses. Full story

H3VR2 announced at the Creature Feature Showcase

The biggest surprise of the week came from the Creature Feature and Friends VR Showcase on May 6. Hot Dogs, Horseshoes and Hand Grenades 2 is coming to Quest 3/3S and Steam. The sequel is a full extraction shooter set in a procedurally generated megastructure, with the original's legendary gun simulation intact. Meta provided significant development support, and the team stressed this is not a port or a stripped-down mobile version. Android Central reported that Quest gamers responded to the showcase by saying "my will to live is back." Full story

Google opened glasses development with Android XR SDK DP3

Android XR SDK Developer Preview 3 shipped with the first official tools for building AI glasses apps. Jetpack Compose Glimmer provides a UI toolkit optimized for transparent displays. Jetpack Projected enables phones to push XR experiences to connected glasses. A new AI Glasses emulator in Android Studio simulates field of view, touchpad input, and resolution matching real hardware specs. Developers now have a roughly six-month head start before Samsung Galaxy Glasses ship. Full story

Meta's Interaction SDK went cross-platform

Meta shipped Interaction SDK v69 with two major expansions: Unreal Engine 5.4 support (previously Unity-only) and compatibility with non-Meta headsets on the Unity side. Grab, poke, raycast, throw, and hand tracking interactions now work regardless of engine or hardware. Meta also released a comprehensive UI component set for Unity and Figma. The best VR interaction library in the industry is no longer locked to one engine or one headset. Full story

Steam Controller sold out in 30 minutes

Valve's new Steam Controller launched May 4 at $99 and sold its entire initial allocation within 30 minutes. Steam's payment servers buckled under the load. The controller features TMR magnetic thumbsticks that eliminate stick drift, dual square trackpads with haptics, 6-axis gyro, Grip Sense, and 35+ hour battery life. No restock date has been announced. Reviews have been overwhelmingly positive, with most outlets calling it the best PC gaming controller available.

May games started shipping

May 7 was a stacked launch day. Spymaster from InnerspaceVR (the A Fisherman's Tale studio) hit Early Access on Quest and PC VR with time-bending espionage gameplay. Evil Inside VR launched as a ground-up VR rebuild on Quest 3 and PSVR2 at $14.99. FlatOut 4: Total Insanity VR brought destructive racing to PC VR Early Access. And Walkabout Mini Golf released the Blokhaven DLC across all platforms. Roboquest VR with co-op follows on May 21. Full preview

The bigger picture

Step back and look at the shape of this week. Every major platform holder, Google, Apple, Samsung, and Meta, made moves in the smart glasses space within the same seven-day window. Developer tools for glasses launched alongside developer tools that broke down engine and hardware barriers. A VR gaming showcase generated genuine excitement in a community that has been skeptical about the content pipeline. And a $99 controller proved that demand for well-made VR-adjacent hardware is alive and well.

Google I/O is 11 days away. If this week was the warmup, May 19 could be something special.