Samsung Galaxy XR Has Easy Sideloading & An Open Bootloader

Samsung Galaxy XR supports sideloading APKs by default, without needing a PC or developer mode, and has an open bootloader too.

That makes Google’s Android XR – on the first headset to use it at least – the most open of the three major standalone XR platforms by far.

Apple’s visionOS doesn’t allow sideloading at all, except for developers compiling their own app from Xcode on their Mac for testing purposes. Meanwhile, sideloading on Meta’s Horizon OS requires registering as a developer, which involves providing Meta either your phone number or payment card details for verification. And even then, you need to connect an external device like a PC to your Quest to start sideloading.

On Samsung Galaxy XR, UploadVR has confirmed that you can sideload without even needing to enable Developer Mode. You can simply download an Android APK in a web browser such as the built-in Google Chrome, and as long as you’ve given the browser permission to install “unknown apps” in the Security and Privacy section of Settings, you can install it.

Further, as first publicly noted by Brad Lynch, you can seemingly even unlock the bootloader on Galaxy XR, meaning you could, in theory at least, install a custom operating system. In practice, though, to be clear, there are no general-purpose standalone XR operating systems, and issues like driver compatibility mean that the most likely path to one would be a modification of the Android XR that runs on the headset. We’ll keep an eye out for any such projects.

Mark Zuckerberg and Meta executives have repeatedly described Horizon OS as the Android of XR, touting their platform’s relative openness compared to Apple’s visionOS.

But now Android XR has arrived, hoping to be the actual Android of XR. And Google’s platform is notably more open than Meta’s.

In the long run, though, what may matter more for which earns the crown of the alternative to Apple Vision is manufacturer adoption. Asus and Lenovo are working on Horizon OS headsets, while Xreal, Lynx, and Sony are working on Android XR devices. When consumers have affordable Android XR and premium Horizon OS options to choose from, and thus hardware is no longer the differentiator, which platform will they choose? And will the differences in openness be a deciding factor?

Samsung Galaxy XR Has A Hidden USB-C Port

A covered USB-C port on Samsung Galaxy XR can be connected to a wide range of accessories.