Google Glass XE 17.3 update uncovered, ‘Notification Glance’ feature now active (updated)

Update: The XE17.3 update appears to be rolling out to Explorers now.

Google has been releasing updates to Google Glass continuously after the dry spell that occurred before XE 16, and yet another one surfaced on the internet last night. While Google hasn’t officially pushed the new software to Explorers via the device’s over-the-air update mechanism, it does pack at least one interesting feature: ‘Notification glance’ (via Android Police).

A calibration menu for the feature was seen previously in a teardown of the KitKat-bringing XE16 update, but it was at the time completely inactive, did nothing of use, and required a bit of a workaround to activate. Now, in XE17.3, “Notification glance” lets you simply glance at the screen when a notification is received to view it. Sadly, though, the feature only works with notifications, and activating the device normally still requires some neck strain (or a tap of the touch pad).

Notably, this leak most likely means that the update will be hitting Explorers’ devices soon. An OTA download is already live on Google’s servers; it’s only a matter of time before someone at the Mountain View company hits a switch.