Interested in trying your hand at developing for Google Glass? Good news: Google has taken the Google Glass Mirror API out of its testing phase and is now opening it up for all developers to tinker around with. The release of the Mirror API comes a fair amount of time before the official launch of the Glass Development Kit, but working with the API is a good way for eager developers to get the ball rolling nonetheless.
Of course, there are a few differences between the Mirror API and the GDK. The Mirror API is used to develop web-based services called Glassware. The cloud-based nature of Glassware doesn’t require any code to be run on Google Glass itself, so really any developer can code using the Mirror API, regardless of whether or not they’ve got a pair of the tech specs on hand. Since Google Glass is a hard item to come by at the moment, that’s definitely a good thing.
The GDK will be a little more in-depth than the Mirror API, but for now, we don’t have a firm date for the official release. A few days back, Google released an early version of the GDK, calling it a sneak peek. Since there isn’t an emulator for the GDK available yet, this sneak peek is only open to people who actually have the device in their possession. Compare that to the now-open Mirror API, and it seems safe to assume that we’ll see a significant uptick in the amount of Glassware being made for Google Glass.
Developers have had access to Google Glass since February of this year. The consumer version is set to launch sometime in 2014, but aside from that, Google hasn’t been too specific about the launch date. The launch of Google Glass is likely some time off, though, since there’s plenty left to test and plenty left for developers to make ahead of release. As always, we’ll be keeping an eye out for any new Google Glass information, but in the mean time, hit up the comments section and let us know if you’ll be tinkering with the Mirror API now that it’s available for all to use.