In our last Glass Teardown, we found a ton of new commands hidden in the resources of GlassVoice.apk, pulled from the XE10 update. Just a couple of days ago, XE11 rolled out to Explorers, and it's got even more to tell us about future Glass functionality.
In this teardown, we'll take a look at progress on functions XE10 hinted at, new resources that clarify some of our previous discoveries, and a couple of new things as well.
GlassVoice.apk
GlassVoice.apk was full of goodies last time. It revealed voice commands for lots of things, from "Capture a Panorama" to "Play a Game" to "Record a Recipe." It was our speculation that these commands were serving as hooks for third-party glassware to latch onto, putting their functionality in the "ok glass" list in much the same manner as apps like Evernote already do.
In XE11, GlassVoice has a few more things to show us. In addition to all the commands we saw last time, GlassVoice has commands for "find a place," "explore nearby," and "start a workout."
We could assume that the place-related commands are either tied to Google Search or a third party app, while "Start a workout" seems to fit in with the biking, running, and golfing commands we saw last time.
There's also some evidence of progress on the "tune an instrument" command, with new pitch-related smali files.
New Iconography
Besides the new commands, the XE11 update also conceals some new iconography, giving us some small imagery related to the presumably upcoming abilities.
We can't infer much more than we already have about these functions based on the icons alone, but it's good to see progress is still being made on making them a reality.
Thanks Rajesh Handa for the tip!
New Apps
Glass Boutique
The Glass Boutique, which would offer a portal for Glass owners to purchase and install glassware, has been in the works for a while. Some speculated that it would come with XE10, but other than Google's addition of a "Glassware" section to the online MyGlass interface, there's been nary a peep about the store. Inside XE11 though, there's a GlassBoutique APK file, meaning the store could be getting close.
Unfortunately, the apk file doesn't offer anything in the way of visuals or other UI elements (yet), but we do have some interesting strings to look at, mainly related to installing or "activating" Glassware. It is possible that the process of installing things from the Boutique will look much like the interface of the current MyGlass offering, whereby users simply turn apps on or off using a single button.
<string name="app_name">Glass Boutique</string>
<string name="glassware_provider_label">Glassware Content Provider</string>
<string name="install_pending_header_text">Activating</string>
<string name="install_complete_header_text">Welcome</string>
<string name="install_failed_header_text">Activation failed for</string>
<string name="uninstall_complete_header_text">Goodbye</string>
<string name="speakable_text_template" formatted="false">%s %s</string>
<string name="generic_package_name">Package</string>
<string name="installation_card_html" formatted="false">"<style> .install-article { background-color: %s; } .install-figure { background-color: %s; } .install-icon { background: url('%s') center center no-repeat; background-size: 150px; bottom: 0; left: 0; top: 0; position: absolute; right: 0; } .install-inactive { opacity: 0.5; } </style> <article class="install-article"> <figure class="install-figure"> <div class="install-icon"></div> </figure> <section> <p class="install-header %s">%s</p> <p class="install-glassware-name %s">%s</p> </section> <div class="overlay-gradient-short"></div> </article>"</string>
For now, further information about the Boutique is still sparse, but we can hope to see more in XE12.
Glass Music Player
music_player_icon.png
Of course, Play Music on Glass is another point of interest. Last time, we saw code for a music card layout, and speculated that perhaps Glass would be able to control Play Music on other devices remotely. Josh Brown's GlassTunes app makes use of the music goodies found in previous Glass builds to allow for local playback, pulling from your Play Music library.
XE11, however, contains a GlassMusicPlayer apk which in turn contains some very telling strings. Here's the full list of relevant tidbits.
<string name="menu_play">Play</string>
<string name="menu_play_radio">Play radio</string>
<string name="songs_message">Finding songs</string>
<string name="play_music_voice_command">listen to</string>
<string name="voice_music_on_speak_now">Speak an artist, playlist, album or song name.</string>
<string name="voice_music_swipe_down_to_cancel">Swipe down to cancel</string>
<string name="unknown_title">Unknown title</string>
<string name="unknown_album">Unknown album</string>
<string name="unknown_artist">Unknown artist</string>
<string name="radio">Radio</string>
<string name="playing">Playing</string>
<string name="browse">Swipe down to browse more results</string>
<string name="loading">Loading…</string>
<string name="searching">Searching…</string>
<string name="num_songs">%d Songs</string>
<string name="num_albums">%d Albums</string>
<string name="dash">" - "</string>
<string name="comma">", "</string>
<string name="error_generic">An error occurred. Try again.</string>
<string name="error_no_results">No music found</string>
<string name="error_no_results_no_nautilus">Not found in My Library</string>
<string name="error_no_results_no_nautilus_secondary">Enable All Access to browse full catalog</string>
<string name="error_playback">Playback failed</string>
<string name="error_playback_playing_elsewhere">You started playback on another device.</string>
<string name="error_playback_network_error">Network error, please try again later.</string>
<string name="error_autoplay_failed">Autoplay failed</string>
<string name="error_autoplay_failed_secondary">Swipe down to see results instead.</string>
<string name="error_too_many_devices">Too many devices</string>
<string name="error_too_many_devices_secondary">Remove a device from play.google.com/music settings</string>
If this is anything to go by, we can see that Glass Music will work much as we've expected - the Listen To command will trigger a voice search for artists, playlists, albums or individual songs. You'll be able to start a Radio station based on these factors, and start playback "on another device," presumably controlling that playback from Glass. It looks like Glass will even be able to deauthorize devices, which you'll have to do if you've got ten devices already authorized on your account.
Again, much of this functionality we already knew about (or experienced using GlassTunes), but it's good to see confirmation of remote control, and that these functions are coagulating into an apk.
Wrap-Up
That's it for this teardown. Glass is inching closer to new and amazing functionality. While much of what we've discussed is probably still a few updates away, it's exciting to make at least partially educated speculations on Glass' future capabilities. Of course, if there are more goodies to find before XE12 rolls out, we'll find and report on them.