MyGlass app allows you to control your Google Glass with your Android smartphone

It should be pretty clear at this point that Google is hoping that Glass becomes the revolutionary device to pull our heads (and minds) out of the smartphone era – with sophisticated voice recognition acting as the gateway to the entire Glass experience alongside a small swipe bar for hierarchy purposes, Glass is meant to keep you looking up and straight ahead at all times. Of course, these are the early days, and some reviewers are suggesting that perhaps Google didn’t get it quite right with Glass the first time around; finicky voice recognition and an unexact swipe bar (both of which were hilariously mocked on NBC’s Saturday Night Live last season) both do nothing but impede an otherwise truly futuristic experience. But what if there was another way?

Today, that other way has come in the form of an update to Google’s official “MyGlass” companion app for Android. Though Google hopes you’ll be comfortable enough using Glass the way it’s been designed, today they’ve added another option for those who would rather keep their smartphone in their hands for just a little longer, bringing an advanced remote control functionality to the application.

The app essentially streams a version of Glass’s UI to your Android device and allows you to swipe, tap, and manipulate Glass just as you would with any other Android device. Can’t get Glass to recognize your “Glass, take a photo” voice command in a crowded room? Just open up MyGlass and tap on Glass’s camera app and see it open before your very eyes. You can even use Glass’s camera just as you would your phone’s built in camera, and take a photo with a single tap.

I don’t think anyone doubts that voice recognition and ultra-personal computing like Glass will one day become the future of mainstream computing, but for now this is a great compromise between the present and the sometimes imperfect future. MyGlass’s new update with remote control functionality is available today on the Google Play store, so get downloading.