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Extended reality (XR) technologies are becoming increasingly pervasive, and may have capacity to help marginalized groups such as transgender people. Drawing from interviews with n = 18 creators of trans technology, we examined how XR technologies do and can support trans people. We uncovered a number of creative ways that XR technologies support trans experiences. Trans technology creators are designing augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) systems that help people explore trans identity, experience new types of bodies, educate about and display trans stories and curated trans content, manipulate the physical world, and innovate gender-affirming surgical techniques. Additionally, we show how considering XR as an analogy for trans identity helps us to think about the fluidity and fluctuation inherent in trans identity in new ways, which in turn enables envisioning technologies that can better support complex and changing identities. Despite XR’s potential for supporting trans people, current AR and VR systems face limitations that restrict their large-scale use, but as access to XR systems increase, so will their capacity to improve trans lives. 

Trans technology – technology created to help address challenges that trans people face – is an important area for innovation that can help improve marginalized people’s lives. We conducted 104 interviews with 115 creators of trans technology to understand how they involved trans people and communities in design processes. We describe projects that used human-centered design processes, as well as design processes that involved trans people in smaller ways, including gathering feedback from users, conducting user testing, or the creators being trans themselves. We show how involving trans people and communities in design is vital for trans technologies to realize their potential for addressing trans needs. Yet we highlight a frequent gap between trans technology design and deployment, and discuss ways to bridge this gap. We argue for the importance of involving community in trans technology design to ensure that trans technology achieves its promise of helping address trans needs and challenges.