The Glass Explorer Edition SDK is deprecated. This documentation remains as a historical reference.
Platform Overview
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When developing Glassware, the best practice is to develop with the Glass
Development Kit. This allows you to access low-level hardware features and
create robust experiences in a familiar Android environment.
We recommend you read the design patterns
guide. They'll help you design your Glassware and go over best practices
that will help you build quickly.
If you're familiar with all of our best practices or if none of the patterns
work for you, learn more about our APIs below.
The Glass Development Kit
The Glass Development Kit (GDK) is an add-on to the Android SDK that lets you
build Glassware that runs directly on Glass. Use the GDK to take advantage of
the following features:
Real-time User Interaction
Offline Functionality
Access to Hardware
By using the Android SDK and GDK, you can leverage the vast array
of Android APIs and also design a great experience
for Glass.

Work in the Android environment
We designed the Glass platform to make the existing Android SDK
just work on Glass. This lets you code in a familiar environment,
but for a uniquely novel device.
In addition, you can use all of the existing Android development tools,
and your Glassware is even delivered as a standard Android package (APK).

The Mirror API
This RESTful API lets you build Glassware by letting you use the language of
your choice and providing web-based APIs. You may want to use the Mirror API if
you need:
Platform independence
Common infrastructure
Built-in functionality
Hybrid Glassware
Mirror API Glassware can invoke GDK Glassware through a menu item.
You can use this hybrid model to leverage existing web properties
that can launch fuller experiences that run directly on Glass.
Except as otherwise noted, the content of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License, and code samples are licensed under the Apache 2.0 License. For details, see the Google Developers Site Policies. Java is a registered trademark of Oracle and/or its affiliates.
Last updated 2024-07-10 UTC.
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