XR Developer News - July 2026

We're in the midst of the summer slowdown and the contrast with last month could hardly be bigger. Mostly small news, no really big announcements, so it's a quick read.

On a personal note, happy to share that we got a 1st place and a 2nd place at the XR Creator Con Berlin hackathon, which was a blast! See the end of this post for details on what we made.

XR hardware, software and news

• Snap published several recordings of the developer event it held behind closed doors a few months back, covering topics like meshing, using Lens Studio with AI coding tools (also check out this one) and design.
• Meta released Horizon OS v2.6, although it seems like a minor update. It also published a few videos on developing for Quest. At Unity's Unite conference Meta had a significant presence which it covered in a blog post.
• Unity held a Unite event in Seoul at which it covered XR a bit, mostly related to support for XREAL Aura. The keynote touched upon it, and so did the engine roadmap session. That collaboration was also visible in a blog post about the pre-AWE Aura hackathon and a dedicated stream.

Inside Google’s First Android XR Hackathon For XREAL AURA

At Google’s first Android XR hackathon 19 teams built for XREAL AURA in two days, and four of five finalists chose Unity. See who won and why.

Unity

• Pico has been continuing its series of videos about Pico OS 6, covering its Unity tooling and emulator.
• W4 Games published a blog about its contributions to Godot's XR support.

Where Every Millisecond Counts: Optimizing Godot for Standalone XR

W4Games

• In personal news, I'm excited to announce that we won a 1st place and a 2nd place in the tracks at the XR Creator Con Berlin hackathon with a public transport experience for Snap Spectacles built on the Reality Import platform we're working on.

Upcoming XR events

• September 23-24, 2026 - Meta Connect, Menlo Park, California.
• December 7-9, 2026 - UnitedXR Europe in Brussels, Belgium.
• April 7-9, 2027 - Laval Virtual in Laval, France.

A bit about this newsletter

Each month I try to round up all the interesting developments in the XR developer landscape. New hardware and software releases, events, tooling, etc. Feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn, for instance if I missed anything which definitely should be in this monthly round up next time. Want to know more? Check out the about page.

And if you need expertise in the XR space, know that we offer exactly that at DNA.inc where I'm Head of XR, so don't hesitate to get in touch!