Alphabet Inc.’s Google and augmented reality startup Magic Leap Inc. announced today that the two companies have joined forces in a strategic partnership to collaborate on AR and optics solutions.

Although the announcement is scant on details, the two companies said that the partnership would combine Magic Leap’s optics and manufacturing expertise with Google’s technological innovation capabilities, Magic Leap said in a blog post.

“By combining efforts, we can foster the future of the [extended reality] ecosystem with unique and innovative product offerings,” said Shahram Izadi, vice president and general manager of AR/XR at Google.

Magic Leap is a well-known early developer of AR headsets that launched its first headset in 2019 with the Magic Leap One. Augmented reality allows for mixing real and virtual environments using computer technology to overlay “holograms” of virtual objects onto what users can see projected onto the lenses of a lightweight headset. The company focuses on enterprise and industry use cases for AR and has since released the Magic Leap 2, a more powerful and lightweight headset.

Google also explored the augmented reality space early on with its Google Glass project in 2011, which initially created a consumer-oriented device that was a pair of glasses with a camera and a visual overlay that allowed users to “see” augmented images. However, Google ultimately shelved the device in 2015 after years of testing. Google Glass was eventually relaunched as an enterprise product in 2019 and now there’s a Google Glass Enterprise Edition 2 with better optics and specs.

As an enterprise producer of augmented reality products, Google is up against Microsoft Corp. with its HoloLens 2, and more immersive products such as mixed-reality headsets such as the Meta Quest 3 from Meta Platforms Inc. and the Vision Pro from Apple Inc. Unlike the holy grail of augmented reality glasses, these headsets are comparatively bulky and cumbersome. However, both Apple and Meta have revealed AR ambitions.

To get AR to work, devices must be lightweight, lenses slight and almost like wearing a standard pair of glasses with the addition of visual and audio augmentation.

“We’ve shipped a couple of different versions of augmented reality devices so far, so we’re out there delivering things, and Google has a long history of platforms thinking,” Magic Leap Chief Technology Officer Julie Larson-Green told Reuters in an interview.

Augmented reality will also tie heavily into the generative artificial intelligence revolution for Google, which recently unveiled a new AI agent called Project Astra. The new assistant is capable of reasoning from visuals it is presented with and holding natural real-time voice conversations. Coupling it with video from augmented reality glasses would be the next obvious step in evolving human interaction with AI.

Photo: Google