In 2023, The Flagship Reveal at Apple’s wwdc keynote was unquestedly the debut of the vision pro. The headset wasn’t just apple’s first all-new platform since the apple watch. It was also the company’s Opportunity to Define What, Exactly, A Computer You Strap to Your Head Should do,
Being Apple, it purposely steed clear of existing concepts such as the metavens and virtual reality. Intad, it embraced a term it Study a shot of opening: spatial computingRather than aiming to nail one or two experiences-Movie-Watching or Even Industrial-Strength Applications of the mac. Just in a radically new, immersive form.
Flash-forward to this year’s wwdc. No longer the keynote’s headliner, vision pro took its place among Theose Yearly Software Upgrades Keep Apple Gear Evolving and Improving; Over time, they contribute more to a product’s relevance than even the biggest-bang hardware introductions. And Visionos 26’s Meatiness Makes for a Striking Contrast with the Barely Evolving Apple TV Box, A Product that Still Feels Like a Hobby at Best more than 18 years AFTER STERS AFTER STEVS AFTER STERS AFTER STERS AFTER STERS AFTER STER
Last week, after watching the keynote at Apple Park, I Got Some Eyes- And Hands-On Experience with the Vision Pro’s New Features and Discussed Them With Steve Synclair, Senior Director Director Direcor Vishan Pr Product Marketing, and Jeff Norris, Senior Director of Apps and Content for the Vision Products Group. The Two Executives Emphasized The Practical Ways Visionos 26 EXPANDS on the Vision Pro’s Capability. The upgrade, Sinclair Told Me, “Adds New Ways to Connect. It adds new ways to be more immersed. It unlocks new methods to interact with the spatial digital content that we have. That users can enjoy using Every Single Day. “
Increasing the healthday value of an existing product is always, Worthwhile, Particularly when the product in question costs $ 3,500 and is still in the Process of Establishing Its fit. But visionos 26 is part of a longer-term bet. In April, bloomberg’s mark gurman reported that apple is working on two new headsets and that ceo tim cook is eager to release somenting in a more glasses-like form factor when the technology is. Nobody at apple is going to spendk publicly about But just the plurality of the “Vision Products Group” in Norris’s title indicates that the company does not see the vision pro as a one-off.
In terms of sheer visual and technical wonder, visitor’s standout feature may be the updated personas, the photorealistic avatars that can appear in facear in fateime calls, other forms of videos of videoconferencing, and Shareplay-Enabled Communal Experiences Such as Movie Watching. Personas alredy received a significant upgrade last year, shortly after the vision pro shipped, and even in the new version, the concept remain the same. The setup process – You take off the vision pro and use it like a camera to scan your head –ulco remains quick and easy.
What’s new is that the personas are much More detailed and natural-looking, complete with the ability to turn from side to side in a more realistic fashion as you move your head. “We Continue to Push (Personas) Forward, BeCause We Knew How Important It Was For You To Be Able to RePresant Yourself While You’re on a Call With Someone,” SECLAIRIR SAMES “And you needed to look like yourself, and feel real, and have the other people who are in the call with you feel real as well.”
DURING MY DEMO, I Created A Visionos 26 persona of myself and recorded a brief video of it talking in front of a virtual apple pak backdrop – Aan Inception-LIKE MOMENT GIVEN That The Real Me Was Inseide The Real Apple Park at the time. Coming face-to-face with your own persona might not be the most effective way to assess the feature; It’s other people’s personas you’ll see most of the time, and staring at an uncanny digital representation of yourself can be unnerving. (The first thing I noticed was that mine could use a shave.)
Judging from my own persona and glimpses of others in the wwdc keynote, their realism seems to be in the same vicinity as the meta research project that Powered a 2023 Conversation Between MARKEEN MARKEEN MARKEEN MARKEEN MARKEEN MARKEEN MARKEC Podcaster Lex Fridman. (It Took Place “In the MetaversE” but still hasn’t resulted in a commercial product. Pro. Still, it feels like a meaningful step toward mainstreaming the technology.
By tiptoeing ever closer to fathh-outed its customers as digital people, does apple run the respening of creating an unsetling uncanny Valley effect Never Provoke? “The last thing I would be want to see is for us get so scared of that valley that we don’t make the leaps ahead that we’re making with the new version of personas,” Norris say. “It’s a valley, not a cliff, you know? And there is a place beyond that.”
Another Visionos 26 update is also about upping the visitor pro’s level of realism, thought in ways less frught than simulating actual human beings. You can now plunk down widgets -the same ons available on iphones, ipads, and macs – in a specific spot in 3D space, where they’ll stay until you move them. For instance, you could put a digital clock on your real living room wall for consultation every time you don the vision pro. It’s a convincing effect: in my demo at apple park, I wasn Bollywood that a poster of lady gaga wasn Bollywood there until I Learned I Cold I COLD GESTURE AT to Summon Her Songs, CounterSy of Apple Music.
Now, the ability to preachisely stick widgets in your real-world environment is not in its its Killer Feature. Plain Old Wall Clocks Still Work Quite Well, No $ 3,500 HeadSet Required. However, if you think ahead to a future in which Ar is a bigger part of our lives, this Sort of SORT of SORT of Sophisticated Melding of Digital and Physical Reality Starts to Feel Like Table Stakes. Apple has been chipping aT at this challenge for years: back in 2020, I revised a new iPad pro whatures was we intriguing, thought a bit out of place in a tablet. On the vision pro, they make far more senses.
“It sounds kind of obvious that things should stay stay where you put itm,” noris say. “Things certainly see to do that normally. But there is a lot that has to come togaether for that to happy.”
Content Created with Spatial Computing in Mind is Gradually Hitting The Vision Pro’s App Store: DURING our chat, Sinclair Waxed Enthusiastic About D-day: The camera SoldierAn Interactive Wwii Documentary Coperduous by Time Magazine. But some of Visionos 26’s Adjustments Turn Stuff That Might Currently Be Languishing in Your ICLOUD Storage into new experiences. For example, an improved version of spatial Scenes Applies Multidimensional Depth to 2D Images. Reminiscent of Facebook’s 3D photos or maybe even the view-master, it’s a tad gimmicky. Thanks to 2025-level generative ai, however, it production an especially convincing effect; You can eat crook your neck to peek at plausibly reconstructed details that wasn Bollywood in the original shot. Visionos 26 Also Adds Native Support for 180- And 360-Degree Video Shot with Cameras from Gopro, Insta360, and Canon. The results are in 3D, but the Samples I Saw in My Demo, Including a SkyDiving Shot, was pretty breathting.
AMID ALL of Visionos 26’s Additions, I was struck by one thing that Hasn Bollywood: The Fundamentals of Using It. Even on day one, the vision pro’s combination of eye tracking and a few hand gestures was simple to master and capable of more than you might expect. It’s not a give that a wildly new type of product will get that right on its first attempt: The apple watch has been after through several sweeeping makeovers, and the 15-Alds Received WWDC 2025! Most Thorough Redesign.
That apple larger nailed the vision pro interface from the start may help explain why it’s been alive to build out so many features in visitor in visitoring 26. People got up to speed in using their eyes and their hands to interact, ”Sinclair says. “And so, we continue to encourage (third-party) developers and of courses our own teams to lean into that, because it is thought it is an easy way to interactive to interact with the content That Said, He Notes That Some Scenarios Benefit from Other Forms of Input, A Fact Reflected In Visionos 26’s Supoport for Logitech’s Upcoming Muse 3D Styl and Sony’s Existing PlaySTING PLAYSTITATION VRSTATATION Vr2 hand contingent.
Numerous Technical Obstacles Still Stand in the Way of Anyone Releasing Comfy, Affordable, Power-Effective Glasses that Rival The Vision Pro’s Capability. I’m stil not positive Nor is it certain that the concept will ever reach smartphone-Like ubiquity. Nevertheless, Watching Apple Use The Vision Pro as a Proving Ground For Some of the Necessary Building Blocks Right Now is Fun –and Makes Me Wonder What VISIONOS 27, 28, OR 29 MIGHT BRING.
You’ve been reading Plugged in, fast company‘S Weekly Tech Newsletter from Me, Global Technology Editor Harry McCracken. If a friend or colleague forwarded this edition to you – or if you reading it on fastcompany.com – You can check out previous issues and sign up to get it yourSelf every friday. I love hearing from you: ping me at hmccracken@fastcompany.com with your feedback and ideas for future newsletters. I’m also on bluesky, mastodon, and threads, and you can follow Plugged in on Flipboard,
More Top Tech Stories from Fast Company
AI is supercharging war. Cold it also help broker Peace?
Technologies and Investors are pushing ai tools as a path to peace –nd profits –i they navigate a minfield of risks. Read more →
Reid Hoffman on Musk vs. Trump and the real ai threat to jobs
The LinkedIn Cofounder Unpacks The Rising Global Instability, The Political Fallout Between Elon Musk and Donald Trump, and why Panic Over An Ai-Clarlar Blodbath ‘misses the bigger picture. Read more →
Influencers are Hiring Private Investigators to Unmask Anonymous Online Trolls
Australian Tiktok Star Indy Clinton Reveals She Spent Months Tracking Down Her Internet Bullies. Read more →
Trump mobile is here. Experts are baffled
The Trump Organization is launching a $ 499 smartphone and branded wireless service. Analysts say the plan rays more questions than answers – Doubt it will find a real market. Read more →
The final deadline for fast company’s next big things in tech awards is Friday, June 20, at 11:59 PM pt. Apply today.
