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The year so far in AR/VR: the 5 biggest announcements and what’s coming next
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We're six months into 2024, and in the first half of the year we've been treated to a whirlwind of augmented and virtual reality tech goodness.

The star of the show was the Apple Vision Pro launch, but we’ve also seen Meta open up its Horizon OS to its former VR rivals, and Xreal launched new glasses and a spatial computing accessory that finally feel like the AR future we’ve been promised.

The year's far from over though, with hardware announcements expected from Meta and (if we're lucky) Samsung in the coming months – so let's dive into the year so far in AR/VR, and take a look at what we might see in the back half of 2024.

AR/VR in 2024: what have been the biggest announcements so far this year?

Lance Ulanoff staring at Apple Vision Pro in its case

The Apple Vision Pro came, but did it conquer? (Image credit: Future/Lance Ulanoff)

We can’t talk about AR and VR tech in 2024 without talking about the Apple Vision Pro – the most anticipated XR product launch maybe ever. Unfortunately for Apple, while its headset made a major splash when it launched in February – with our Apple Vision Pro review awarding it four-and-a-half-stars – the hype has since petered out, and the upcoming global launch on July 12 for Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and the UK doesn’t seem to have reignited major interest in the $ 3,499 / £3,499 / AU$ 5,999 device.

But the VR space was given a major shake up this year, even if not by Apple. That’s because Meta announced that its Horizon OS would be coming to third-party headsets – starting with devices from ASUS, Lenovo and Xbox. This is super exciting as the Horizon OS is the best standalone VR platform thanks to its intuitive UI, massive software library, and regular updates. 

Horizon OS going third-party should see the launch of a wider range of headset designs – focusing in distinct niches like gaming, productivity, exercise, and more – that aren’t held back by lackluster operating systems; which was the case for headsets like the HTC Vive XR Elite)

Though it wasn’t all good news from Meta as it cut support for the original Oculus Quest headset. April 30 was the last day developers could send app updates to the half-a-decade-old VR device, and August will mark the final month Meta will send out “critical bug fixes and security patches” to the device – so if you want to keep using your Quest library it might finally be time to upgrade to the Meta Quest 3 (which we’d recommend anyway so that you can enjoy upcoming exclusive like Batman: Arkham Shadow).

Lastly, in the AR space specifically, Xreal announced the Xreal Air 2 Ultra and a handy Xreal Beam Pro accessory – that’s basically a spatial computing ready smartphone. We haven’t yet had a chance to try out the Ultra, but its been billed as a more affordable alternative to the Vision Pro, complete with in-built cameras so you can interact with virtual elements with your hands (something you couldn’t do with previous models such as the regular Xreal Air 2).

AR/VR in 2024: what launches are we expecting during the rest of the year?

Girl wearing Meta Quest 3 headset interacting with a jungle playset

Will we see a new Meta Quest 3 this year? Probably (Image credit: Meta)

One headset that we’ll almost certainly see later this year is the Meta Quest 3S. This so-called affordable Quest 3 is believed to pack the Quest 3’s brain (a Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 chipset) in a bulky Quest 2-like body – as well as adopting a few other downgrades.

Meta hasn’t said much officially, but it has leaked the device twice. One leak involved its CTO accidentally showcasing it in the background of a Threads video, while the other saw the Quest 3S appearing accidentally on some Meta Quest Store pages as a compatible headset for some software. So this all but guarantees it’ll show up at Meta Connect 2024, which we know is scheduled for September 25 – 26.

Meta also dropped a surprise teased its first pair of AR glasses at the end of a blog post earlier this year, but we don’t expect they’ll launch in 2024 – with a leaked internal roadmap shared by  The Verge back in 2023 suggesting they’ll land in 2027, though a pair of precursor smart glasses are expected in 2025 to update its AI-powered Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses product line.

Getting back to 2024 releases, we might also see the highly-anticipated Samsung XR/VR headset. Samsung and Google announced its existence over a year ago, but haven’t had much to say on it since – with rumors suggesting they delayed its launch following reactions to the Apple Vision Pro. Hopefully that means it wasn’t pushed out of 2024 and into 2025 or beyond, but we’ll have to wait and see.

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Meta Quest 3’s next update steals the Vision Pro’s best productivity feature… kinda
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The Meta Quest 3 looks set to be taking yet another step towards being an Apple Vision Pro that doesn’t cost $ 3,499 / £3,499 / AU$ 5,999, by taking yet another feature from the Apple headset for itself.

This time it's a new window layout style, though it’s not really fair to say Meta is stealing this idea from Apple, merely improving its current approach. Rather than simply having three 2D apps docked side by side in fixed positions (which is what is currently possible on the Meta Quest 3 and other Meta headsets), you can now have three windows that are freely placeable anywhere in your virtual home office, and another three docked – making a total of six.

The experimental setting has been unlocked as part of the HoizonOS v67 update which is currently in beta for members of the Meta Quest Public Test Channel. Clips of people testing it out also show users switching the windows between curved and flat, as well as a feature that can lower the brightness of 2D environments – though this doesn’t work if you’re using the windows in mixed reality with passthrough.

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While this does bring the Quest 3 closer to matching the Vision Pro’s approach to 2D apps in a 3D space, it’s not quite one-to-one yet. The biggest difference is if you stray too far from a window it returns to its default docked position on the Quest 3 – whereas on Vision Pro you can leave windows in their custom floating positions indefinitely like they’re real objects.

That said, it’s also worth noting the Meta Quest 3 only costs $ 499.99 / £479.99 / AU$ 799.99, so it’s forgiven for not being a direct copy.

A closing gap

The Apple Vision Pro will always be better than the Meta Quest 3 on a technical level with its vastly better displays and chipset. But Apple hasn’t done enough to leverage its advantages in ways that matter, but that was probably always going to be the case.

The Vision Pro with its eye-tracking, laptop-level power, focus on less active XR experiences, and approach to hand-tracking offers app developers a vast array of tools to create interesting software for the device. 

However, what makes the headset unique is also its downfall – it’s too dissimilar to its rivals. If you make a VR app that takes full advantage of the Vision Pro it probably won’t be well suited to other platforms (and vice versa). So if you’re weighing up your options, making a non-Vision Pro app just makes more financial sense as it can run on more popular platforms; that is, unless Apple is offering some kind of financial incentive.

A Meta Quest 3 user throwing a giant die onto a virtual medieval tabletop game board full of castles, wizards and knights

Demeo is great, but the Apple Vision Pro needed more than this (Image credit: Meta)

Some classic VR games and apps have started to get Vision Pro ports, but they are in small numbers and have trickled in months after the headset launched and the hype has died down.

Instead, most of the apps that it can run are XR versions of iPad and Mac apps which begs the question of what you really gain from buying a Vision Pro – especially as you likely already have those other gadgets, or could buy them for less than the cost of Apple’s headset.

Meta on the other hand has continued to fund exciting exclusive apps – we’re getting a bonafide Batman: Arkham game to name a recent example. At the same time, it's rolling out monthly major software updates that have only narrowed the gap between the Vision Pro and Quest 3.

We’ll have to wait and see how things continue the rest of the year and beyond, but my advice remains the same as it always has: if you want to try VR then get a Quest 3 or Quest 2 – there’s no good reason to get a Vision Pro instead.

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Meta can’t stop leaking its next VR headset, as it accidentally shows off the Quest 3S
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Meta has to know what it’s doing, because for the second time in as many weeks it has leaked the Meta Quest 3S – this time its next VR headset made a cameo in the background of a video filmed by its CTO.

In a video highlighting the new mixed-reality upgrades arriving as part of Horizon OS update v66 which Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth posted on Threads, we see a view of someone’s home office with some kind of Meta Quest headset on a desk in the background.

The thing is, this Quest device doesn’t appear to be anything we recognise. It looks too bulky to be a Meta Quest 3, while it has cameras in the wrong places and it isn't round enough to be a Quest 2. The white plastic cladding also confirms it’s not an original Quest or Quest Pro.

Instead, it looks nearly identical to the leaked Quest 3S design. Luna – the leaker sharing the bulk of the Quest 3S info – took to Twitter to point out this accidental teaser, which Bosworth then replied to, saying “love that higher quality video over on Threads…”

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This is far from a confirmation, but combined with the Quest 3S appearing accidentally on some Meta Quest Store pages it seems very likely that the so-called cheaper Quest 3 model is coming soon; most likely at Meta Connect 2024 which Meta revealed is taking place on September 25 and 26.

That said, with all these leaks Meta may make an earlier official teaser ahead of its wider reveal later this year to try and regain some control over the situation.

It’s time to eat my hat 

I was convinced the Meta Quest 3S wouldn’t return to the Oculus Quest 2’s bulky design when I first saw the leaks. I fully expected Meta to prioritize comfort as this was a major critique in Vision Pro reviews – Meta’s most high profile rival.

Instead I was prepared to see it shave off the price by using lower quality displays, less RAM, cheaper materials, or perhaps using a less impressive mixed-reality camera system. Heck, with all the hand-tracking updates we've seen, I wouldn’t have been surpised if the controllers had been let go – even if that wouldn’t be a great idea overall.

But with this latest leak I have to accept that I was wrong. The Quest 3S does look to be a Quest 3 in the Quest 2’s bulky body. The only remaining question is how much will it cost?

Oculus Quest 2 virtual reality headset under a green light

Welcome back Quest 2 design, we hardly missed you (Image credit: Shutterstock / Boumen Japet)

This is where I’m a little worried. If the Quest 3S isn’t the technical downgrade I was anticipating, can a price drop to the Quest 2’s launch price of $ 299 / £299 / AU$ 479 be justified? I mean, Meta can do whatever it wants, but pricing the 3S will be a challenge.

If it goes too low – which $ 299 / £299 / AU$ 479 feels like it might be – can we justify spending $ 499 / £479 / AU$ 799 on the full-on Meta Quest 3? If Meta instead aims higher, maybe $ 399 / £399 / AU$ 599, then this won’t feel like the budget Quest 2 replacement leaks have teased the device to be – and begs the question if it’s not just worth spending that bit extra to get the full-on Quest 3.

At least even if Meta does go for the cheaper end of the scale it won’t anywhere close to as big a burn to Meta Quest 3 customers as when it teased the Quest 3 as it’s “most powerful headset yet” less than six months after it launched the Quest Pro – with it then selling the Quest 3 for only a third of the Pro’s original price.

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Google’s Gemini Nano could launch on the Pixel 8a as early as next month
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Google promised back in March that it would eventually bring Gemini Nano to the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8a although no one knew exactly when. Until now, that is, as the update may arrive “very soon.” 

Android Authority recently did a deep dive into the Pixel 8 series’ AICore app and found a pair of toggle switches inside the settings menu. The second switch is the main focus because flipping it turns on “on-device GenAI features.” Activating the tool presumably allows a Pixel 8 smartphone to harness Gemini Nano in order to power the device’s generative AI capabilities. 

It doesn’t actually say “Nano” in the accompanying text, though; just “Gemini”. However, we believe it is that particular model and not some stripped-down version, after all this is what Google said it would. Plus, the Pixel 8 trio runs on the Tensor G3 chipset and it can support the AI with the right hardware adjustments.

No one knows exactly what the AI will actually do here, though. Gemini Nano on the Pixel 8 Pro powers the phone’s “multimodal capabilities,” including, but not limited to, the Summarize tool in the Record app and Magic Compose in Google Messages.

Imminent launch

The other toggle switch isn’t as noteworthy – a screenshot in the report reveals it enables “AICore Persistent.” This gives applications “permission… to use as many [device] resources as possible”. 

Android Authority states that the sudden appearance of these switches could mean Google is almost ready to “announce Nano support for the Pixel 8/8a ”—maybe within the next couple of days or weeks. The company typically releases major updates for its mobile platforms in June, so we expect to see Gemini roll out to the rest of the Pixel 8 line next month. 

According to the publication, the toggles will likely be found in the Developer Options section of the smartphone’s Settings menu. However, it's important to note that this could change at any time.

Technically-minded users can find the switches by digging around the latest AICore patch. The software is available for download from the Google Play Store; however, your Pixel 8 model may need to be running Android 15 Beta 2.1. 9To5Google, in their coverage, claims to have found the AICore toggles on a Pixel 8 with the beta but not on a phone running Android 14.

As for the Pixel 8 Pro, it's unknown if the high-end model is going to receive the same update although there's a chance it could. Android Authority points out it's currently not possible for Pro users to deactivate Gemini Nano, but this update could give them the option.

Be sure to check out TechRadar's list of the best Pixel phones for 2024.

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Next Windows 11 update might include a new PC optimization app – and a sneaky way for Microsoft to introduce ads
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We’re expecting the next major upgrade for Windows 11, the 24H2 update, to roll out widely in September or October of this year, and it’s possible that it could include Microsoft’s system optimizing app for Windows 11 (and Windows 10) called ‘PC Manager.’

The app was originally made for Windows 10 and Windows 11 users in China but has since spread to some other regions. Where it’s available, users can download PC Manager from the Microsoft Store if they want, but now it appears that Microsoft is going one step further by including the app in the 24H2 update.

At least Microsoft has introduced PC Manager in the latest Windows 11 preview build in the Beta channel, but only in China right now. This is quite a large step forward because it means the app is now one of the default inclusions in Windows 11 for Chinese users, as Neowin reports.

Logically, in the future, Microsoft may make PC Manager a default app in other regions, perhaps including the US. Indeed, the official page for the app in the US now allows Windows 11 and 10 users to download it – though of course, that’s a far cry from it becoming one of the stock apps in Microsoft’s operating systems.

woman working from home with child

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Managing expectations

PC system optimizers have been around for a long time in the form of third-party apps, and it’s very interesting to see Microsoft offer up an official take on this kind of utility, built right into Windows, that many people think is pretty good.

The app promises to improve your system’s performance with typical actions like suggesting ways to free up memory and disk space, checking for potential threats to your PC like viruses or other issues, and reducing ads and pop-ups. The last aim is a little ironic seeing as a recent version of PC Manager was shown to suggest that users ‘fix’ their system by changing their default search engine to Bing. This hardly seems like a repair or a quality-of-life improvement, but just another shoehorned attempt at prompting users to switch to Microsoft products dressed up as a ‘suggestion.’ 

Neowin also tells us that in the past, PC Manager has been shown to inject affiliate links to products promoted by Microsoft, and recommend questionable actions in terms of optimizing your system. So, take that as something of a caution.

Conceptually, PC Manager sounds helpful or even necessary, offering assistance like quick system clean-up solutions, and protecting your default settings from unauthorized changes. In practice, it looks like Microsoft is experimenting with making some not-so-helpful (or even potentially harmful) additions.

I hope that Microsoft reconsiders this and puts the effort in to make it a great app, as that’s what’s best for Windows users and what will foster goodwill. It may also be the case that the changes made for China – including PC Manager becoming a default app in Windows 11 – may never be applied to the US market (or other regions).

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Apple’s next accessibility features let you control your iPhone and iPad with just your eyes
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Ahead of Global Accessibility Day on May 16, 2024, Apple unveiled a number of new accessibility features for the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Vision Pro. Eye tracking is leading a long list of new functionality which will let you control your iPhone and iPad by moving your eyes. 

Eye Tracking, Music Haptics, Vocal Shortcuts, and Vehicle Motion Cues will arrive on eligible Apple gadgets later this year. These new accessibility features will most likely be released with iOS 18, iPadOS 18, VisionOS 2, and the next version of macOS. 

These new accessibility features have become a yearly drop for Apple. The curtain is normally lifted a few weeks before WWDC, aka the Worldwide Developers Conference, which kicks off on June 10, 2024. That should be the event where we see Apple show off its next generation of main operating systems and AI chops. 

Eye-Tracking looks seriously impressive 

Eye Tracking demoed on an iPad.

(Image credit: Apple)

Eye-tracking looks seriously impressive and is a key way to make the iPhone and iPad even more accessible. As noted in the release and captured in a video, you can navigate iPadOS – as well as iOS – open apps, and even control elements all with just your eyes, and it uses the front-facing camera, artificial intelligence, and local machine learning throughout the experience. 

You can look around the interface and use “Dwell Control” to engage with a button or element. Gestures will also be handled through just eye movement. This means that you can first look at Safari, Phone, or another app, hold that view, and it will open. 

Most critically, all setup and usage data is kept local on the device, so you’ll be set with just your iPhone. You won’t need an accessory to use eye tracking. It’s designed for people with physical disabilities and builds upon other accessible ways to control an iPhone or iPad.

Vocal Shortcuts, Music Haptics, and Live Captions on Vision Pro

Apple's new Vocal Shortcuts for iPhone and iPad.

(Image credit: Apple)

Another new accessibility feature is Vocal Shortcuts, designed for iPad and iPhone users with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), cerebral palsy, stroke, or “acquired or progressive conditions that affect speech.” This will let you set up a custom sound that Siri can learn and identify to launch a specific shortcut or run through a task. It lives alongside Listen for Atypical Speech, designed for the same users, to open up speech recognition for a wider set. 

These two features build upon some introduced within iOS 17, so it’s great to see Apple continue to innovate. With Atypical Speech, specifically, Apple is using artificial intelligence to learn and recognize different types of speech. 

Music Haptics on the iPhone is designed for users who are hard of hearing or deaf to experience music. The built-in taptic engine, which powers the iPhone’s haptics, will play different vibrations, like taps and textures, that resemble a song's audio. At launch, it will work across “millions of songs” within Apple Music, and there will be an open API for developers to implement and make music from other sources accessible.

Additionally, Apple has previews of a few other features and updates. Vehicle Motion Cues will be available on iPhone and iPad and aim to reduce motion sickness with animated dots on that screen that change as vehicle motion is detected. It's designed to help reduce motion sickness without blocking whatever you view on the screen.

A look at Live Captions in visionOS at Apple Vision Pro

(Image credit: Apple)

One major addition arriving for VisionOS – aka the software that powers Apple Vision Pro – will be Live Captions across the entire system. This will allow for captions for spoken dialogue within conversations from FaceTime and audio from apps to be seen right in front of you. Apple’s release notes that it was designed for users who are deaf or hard of hearing, but like all accessibility features, it can be found in Settings.

Since this is Live Captions on an Apple Vision Pro, you can move the window containing the captions around and adjust the size like any other window. Vision accessibility within VisosOS will also gain reduced transparency, smart inverting, and dim flashing light functionality.

Regarding when these will ship, Apple notes in the release that the “new accessibility features [are] coming later this year.” We’ll keep a close eye on this and imagine that these will ship with the next generation of OS’ like iOS 18 and iPadOS 18, meaning folks with a developer account may be able to test these features in forthcoming beta releases.

Considering that a few of these features are powered by on-device machine learning and artificial intelligence, aiding with accessibility features is just one way that Apple believes AI has the potential to make an impact. We’ll likely hear the technology giant share more of its thoughts around AI and consumer-ready features at WWDC 2024.

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LG’s new super-bright OLED panel could give the next Meta Quest an edge over the Apple Vision Pro
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LG Display has unveiled an eye-wateringly bright OLED display that's specially designed for VR headsets – a 10,000-nit OLEDoS (OLED on silicon) panel that could help to bring Meta headsets more in line with the Apple Vision Pro’s visual superiority.

For context, the Meta Quest 3’s displays offer a mere 100 nits, while Apple’s Vision Pro’s OLEDoS panels are rated to achieve 5,000 nits – though there’s no official word on whether they ever get that bright.

LG’s 10,000-nit screens would blow all of these out of the water, though they’d only be half as bright as the 20,000-nit prototype Meta headset I’ve tested in the past (appropriately called Starburst). The advantage is that these super-bright headsets can deliver much more life-like HDR – meaning darker spaces seem darker, while bright objects truly glow like you’d expect them to in the real world.

It’s worth noting that while LG’s new VR OLED can achieve 10,000 nits, it may not ever get that bright or be that bright frequently. Running at 10,000 nits constantly would likely cause a lot of heat and drain your headset’s battery. Considering it would be so close to your eyes, I’d also be concerned it might cause damage. When I tested Starburst, the highest 20,000-nit setting did slightly sting and most of the scenes demoed in this setting were dark with just a few exceptionally bright columns.

Beyond being über bright, this LG display has an ultra-high 4,000 pixel per inch resolution. That's over triple the Quest 3's 1,218 pixel per inch resolution, and LG still beats out the Vision Pro's 3,386 pixels per inch (via iFixit).

Hamish Hector trying out the Starburst VR headset

Starburst was so heavy I had to hold it with two hands (Image credit: Future)

Is LG going to take over XR?

There’s no word yet on when or even if LG's OLEDoS panel will appear in an actual VR headset that you or I could buy, but if it does feature in a product, we expect it’ll be in Meta hardware first. That’s because LG and Meta have officially teamed up to work on XR technology (a catchall for VR, AR, and MR), and I’m convinced this means LG is making the displays for the next Meta Quest Pro.

However, there is a small chance LG’s VR plans could be more selfish.

That’s because since LG and Meta announced their collaboration, Meta has revealed that its Horizon OS is coming to third-party VR headsets – beginning with Xbox Lenovo, and Asus. LG isn’t on this list but it too may have its own VR headset in the works that would put its OLEDoS panel to use, rather than appearing in an official Meta Quest.

We'll have to wait and see what's announced, but whichever VR headset gets this new LG OLEDoS panel it's almost certainly going to be one of the best VR headsets out there.

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Meta Quest 3’s new Travel Model lets you use the headset on a plane – and stop staring at the Vision Pro wearer in the next aisle
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Augmented reality is taking to the skies as Meta is rolling out an experimental Travel Mode to its Quest 2 and Quest 3 headsets. Once enabled, users can enjoy content while on a plane, a function that wasn't possible due to certain components. 

Sitting in a moving vehicle, such as a car or airplane, can confuse the internal measurement units (or IMUs, for short) and, as a result, cause the headset to have a hard time tracking your position. 

But thanks to Travel Mode, you won’t have this problem. Meta says it fine-tuned the Quest headset's “algorithms to account for the motion of an airplane,” which delivers a much more stable experience while flying. It'll also level the playing field against the Apple Vision Pro, which has offered a travel mode since launch.

You connect the Quest 2 or 3 to a plane's Wi-Fi connection and access content from an external tablet or laptop or that is stored within the Quest library. Meta recommends double-checking if an app needs an internet connection to work, as inflight Wi-Fi can be rather spotty. This means that certain video games, among other content, may play worse. 

As far as in-flight infotainment systems go, most will not be accessible, except for Lufthansa, thanks to a partnership between Meta and the German-based airline.

Quest 3's new Travel Mode

(Image credit: Meta)

New content

Meta's partnership with Lufthansa will provide unique content that is “designed to run on Quest 3 in Travel Mode.” These include interactive games like chess, meditation exercises, travel podcasts, and “virtual sightseeing previews”. That last one lets see what your destination is like right before you get there. However, this content will only be offered to people seated in Lufthansa’s Allegris Business Class Suite on select flights.

Lufthansa Chess on Travel Mode

(Image credit: Meta/Lufthansa)

If you want to try out Travel Mode, you can activate it by going to the Experimental section on your Quest headset’s Settings menu. Enable the feature, and you're ready to use it. Once activated, you can toggle Travel Mode on or off anytime in Quick Settings. Meta plans to offer Travel Mode for additional modes of transportation like trains at some point, but a specific release date has not been announced.

A company representative told us Travel Mode is available to all users globally, although it's unknown when it'll leave its experimental state and become a standard feature. We asked if there are plans to expand the Lufthansa content to other airlines and travel classes like Economy. But they have nothing to share at the moment. Meta wants to keep their pilot program with Lufthansa for the time being, however they are interested in expanding.

If you're looking for recommendations on what to play on your next flight, check out TechRadar's list of the best Quest 2 games for 2024.

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Adobe’s next big project is an AI that can upscale low-res video to 8x its original quality
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A group of Adobe researchers recently published a paper on a new generative AI model called VideoGigaGAN and we believe it may launch on a future product. What it does is upscale low-quality videos by up to eight times their original resolution without sacrificing stability or important aspects of the source material. Several demo clips can be found on the project’s website showing off its abilities. It can turn a blurry 128×128 pixel resolution video of a waterfall into footage running at a resolution of 1,024×1,024 pixels.

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What’s noteworthy about the AI is it doesn’t skimp out on the finer details. Skin texture, wrinkles, strands of hair, and more are visible on the faces of human subjects. The other demos also feature a similar level of quality. You can better make out a swan swimming in a pond and the blossom on a tree thanks to this tech. It may seem bizarre to be focusing so much on skin wrinkles or feathers. However, it is this level of detail that companies like Adobe must nail down if they aim to implement image-enhancing AI on a wide scale.

Improving AI

You probably have a couple of questions about the platform’s latest project like how does it work? Well, it’s complicated. 

The “GAN” in VideoGigaGAN stands for generative adversarial network, a type of AI capable of creating realistic images. Adobe’s version is specifically based on GigaGAN which specializes in upscaling generated content as well as real photos. The problem with this tech, as TheVerge points out, is that it can’t improve the quality of videos without having multiple problems crop up like weird artifacts. To solve this issue, Adobe researchers used a variety of techniques.

The research paper explains the whole process. You can read it yourself to get the full picture although it is dense material. Basically, they introduced a “flow-guided propagation module” to ensure consistency among a video’s frames, anti-aliasing to reduce artifacts, and a “high-frequency feature shuttle” to make up for sudden drops in detail. There is more to VideoGigaGAN than what we just described, but that’s the gist of it.

Potential inclusion

Will we see this on an upcoming Adobe product or roll out as a standalone app? Most likely – at least we think so. 

In the past year, the company has been focusing heavily on implementing artificial intelligence into its software from the launch of Firefly to Acrobat’s new assistant. A few months ago during Adobe MAX 2023, a video upscaler referred to as Project Res Up was previewed at the event and its performance resembles what we see in the VideoGigaGAN demos. An old movie from the 1940s goes from running at a 480 x 360 image resolution to a crisp 1,280 x 960. Blurry footage of an elephant in a river becomes crystal clear. The presenter even mentions how the software can upscale a clip to four times the original quality. 

Admittedly, this is conjecture, but it’s entirely possible VideoGigaGAN may be the engine behind Res-Up. Adobe’s future product could give people a way to upscale old family videos or low-quality footage into the movie we envision in our minds. Perhaps, the recent preview is a hint at an imminent release.

VideoGigaGAN is still deep in development so it’s unknown when or if it’ll come out. There are several obstacles in the way. The AI can’t properly process videos beyond 200 frames or render small objects, but we'll definitely be keeping an eye on it.

In the meantime, check out TechRadar's list of the best AI image upscalers for 2024.

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Gemini’s next evolution could let you use the AI while you browse the internet
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Gemini may receive a big update on mobile in the near future where it’ll gain several new features including a text box overlay. Details of the upgrade come from industry insider AssembleDebug who shared his findings with a couple of publications.

PiunikaWeb gained insight into the overlay and it’s quite fascinating seeing it in action. It converts the AI’s input box into a small floating window located at the bottom of a smartphone display, staying there even if you close the app. You could, for example, talk to Gemini while browsing the internet or checking your email. 

AssembleDebug was able to activate the window and get it working on his phone while on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter). His demo video shows it behaving exactly like the Gemini app. You ask the AI a question, and after a few seconds, a response comes out complete with source links, images, as well as YouTube videos if the inquiry calls for it. Answers have the potential to obscure the app behind it. 

AssembleDebug’s video reveals the length depends on whether the question requires a long-form answer. We should mention that the overlay is multimodal so you can write out an inquiry, verbally command the AI, or upload an image.

Smarter AI

The other notable changes were shared with Android Authority. First, Gemini on Android will gain the ability to accept different types of files besides photographs. Images show a tester uploading a PDF, and then asking the AI to summarize the text inside it. Apparently, the feature is present in the current version of Gemini however activating it doesn’t do anything. Android Authority speculates the update may be exclusive to either Google Workspace or Gemini Advanced; maybe both. It’s hard to tell at the moment.

Second is a pretty basic tool, but useful nonetheless called Select Text. The way Gemini works right now is you’re forced to copy a whole block of text even if you just want a small portion. Select Text solves this issue by allowing you to grab a specific line or paragraph. 

Yeah, it’s not a flashy upgrade. Almost every app in the world has the same capability. Yet, the tool has “huge implications for Gemini’s usability”. It greatly improves the AI’s ease of use by not being so restrictive.  

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A fourth, smaller update was found by AssembleDebug. It’s known as Real-time Responses. The descriptor text found alongside it claims the tool lets you see answers being written out in real-time. However, as PiunikaWeb points out, it’s only an animation change. There aren’t any “practical benefits.” Instead of waiting for Gemini to generate a response as one solid mass, you can choose to see the AI write everything out line by line similar to its desktop counterpart.

Google I/O 2024 kicks off in about three weeks on May 14. No word on when these features will roll out, but we'll learn a lot more during the event.

While you wait, check out TechRadar's roundup of the best Android smartphones for 2024 if you're looking to upgrade.

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