Apps for Google and Samsung’s Android XR glasses are not allowed to use the camera for social live-streaming. Google’s developer rules for intelligent eyewear also bar apps from identifying bystanders’ faces in real time. Video calls are allowed, and so is using the camera to understand the scene around you.
The rules sit in Google’s app quality guidelines and policies for intelligent eyewear, published on the Android Developers site. The page carries no date, so it is unclear when each rule was added. They matter now because the Warby Parker and Gentle Monster glasses start at $395 in the US and are due in December.
What Android XR glasses apps cannot do with the camera
The headline rule covers broadcasting. Google’s guidelines put it this way:
Apps must not use wearable camera sensors for Video Social Live Streaming which includes any real-time, one-to-many live streaming, public broadcasting, or casting to public feeds and open channels.
Google’s line falls between broadcasting to many people and a video call. The first is banned and the second is allowed. Apps are also not allowed to run facial identification that surfaces a bystander’s personal details. Google’s examples include names, home addresses, phone numbers and employers. Using the camera to generate non-consensual intimate imagery or other illegal content is banned too.
There are rules on how the camera starts as well. If an app starts the camera from your phone, you should hear a countdown before streaming begins. The camera double-press gesture may only start the camera stream, and the app has to explain beforehand what the camera will do.
Microphone and indicator light rules
- No background recording: apps may not keep recording or transcribing audio when the wearer is not actively using the app for a task they started.
- No voice identification: apps may not identify the voices of people other than the wearer.
- No LED tampering: apps may not change, dim or disable the outward-facing and user-facing LEDs that signal camera and microphone use.
- No bypassing tamper detection: apps may not get around the system check that stops recording if the outward LED is covered or damaged.
We looked at the LED and its limits as a privacy signal in our earlier post on Samsung’s smart glasses privacy and durability.
What these rules mean for buyers
These are Google Play policies that bind app developers, not a hardware lock. Apps that follow Google Play policy cannot live-stream from the glasses or identify strangers. The rules apply to apps bound by that policy, so treat them as a floor rather than a guarantee.
For the people around a wearer, that is a real gain. For buyers who hoped to stream their day hands-free, it is a feature they will not get from compliant apps. If live-streaming is the reason you want smart glasses, read these rules before you preorder from Warby Parker or Gentle Monster.
Source: Android Developers
