In June 2023, Apple unveiled the Vision Pro, frustrating many Google employees. Three weeks later, Business Insider reported that Google had shelved Project Iris as part of its company-wide cost-cutting measures earlier in the year, which saw mass layoffs and the departure of Bavor. The final product would have resembled ordinary eyeglasses. The Verge observed that Akeley was now listed as retired on LinkedIn, while Lucovsky, many North employees, and several other engineers remained involved in Google's AR ventures; Chung had departed the company in February. Lucovsky left the following month, and Izadi assumed leadership of the AR division, now focused mainly on Project Moohan and reporting to Google senior vice president Hiroshi Lockheimer. Employees did not rule out the possibility of Iris being resurrected in the future. 9to5Google unearthed evidence in November that pointed to a possible revival of the project, locating a new string of code on the Google app on Android referencing Iris and the ability to activate the Google Assistant virtual assistant by touching one's right temple. Google laid off much of its AR hardware team in January 2024.
Meanwhile, Google shifted its focus from hardware to AR and MR software, which they hoped to license to third-party manufacturers à la Android. A new team under Izadi began incorporating Iris' code into a new project codenamed Betty, intended to be part of a "Micro XR" platform that would be pitched to manufacturers. The former Raxium team continued to explore potential AR hardware projects under Greco's supervision, but was reportedly "firewalled" from the Moohan and Betty crews. A Google employee described the situation as "a weird bureaucratic mess". The Information reported in December 2023 that Google was also looking to integrate a new virtual assistant codenamed "Pixie", powered by its recently announced Gemini large language model, into glasses. Google announced Android XR, a new operating system that would launch on Samsung's Moohan headset, in December 2024.
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