From spatial widgets to realistic Personas: All the visionOS updates Apple announced at WWDC
Apple’s updates to visionOS 26, the operating system powering its mixed reality headset, build on last year’s Apple Vision Pro spatial computer that blends digital content with the physical world. At WWDC, Apple announced a range of updates for both consumer and enterprise customers, from new spatial widgets and content to more realistic Personas and more.
Apple’s widgets offer personalized and useful information at a glance. With visionOS 26, they become spatial, integrating into your space. You can customize the widgets to the size, color, and depth you like, and place them where you want.
New widgets include a clock that you can decorate, weather that adapts to the weather outside near you, music for quick access to tunes, and photos that can transform into a panorama or a “window to another space.”
Adding depth to 2D images
An update to the visionOS Photos app uses a new AI algorithm that leverages computational depth to create multiple perspectives for your 2D photos, bringing images to life. Apple says it will feel like you can “lean right into them and look around.”
Spatial browsing on Safari can also make web browsing a more immersive experience. With certain supported articles, spatial browsing can hide distractions and reveal inline photos that “come alive as you scroll.” Developers can also add spatial browsing to their own apps.
Talking heads
Apple released Personas, an AI avatar to represent you on video calls, on the Vision Pro as a beta feature last year. With visionOS 26, Apple says Personas “more realistically represent you.”
The new Personas take advantage of “volumetric rendering and machine learning technology” to enhance everything from how you look in full side profile view to delivering more accurate-looking hair, eyelashes, and complexion. Personas are all created on-device in a “matter of seconds,” Apple says.
Immerse together
visionOS 26 lets you and another headset-wearing friend watch a movie or play a spatial game together.
This capability is also being marketed for enterprise clients, allowing users to collaborate. For example, 3D design software company Dassault Systèmes is leveraging the ability with its 3DLive app to visualize 3D designs in person and with remote colleagues.
visionOS 26 also lets organizations easily share a common pool of devices among team members, and even securely saves your eye and hand data, vision prescription, and accessibility settings to your iPhone so users can quickly use a shared team device or a friend’s Vision Pro as a guest user.
Apple said it would add more APIs so enterprises can create apps designed for visionOS. There’s a new “for your eyes only” mode that ensures only those who have been given access can see any confidential materials.
Finally, Apple announced Logitech Muse built for Vision Pro, a spatial accessory built for the headset that lets you draw and collaborate in 3D with precision.
Other visionOS 26 updates
More Apple Intelligence features are coming to the Apple Vision Pro. For instance, visionOS 26 supports new languages like French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish, along with support for English in Australia, Canada, India, Singapore, and the U.K.
Users can also now “look to scroll” using just their eyes to explore apps and websites. They can also now unlock their iPhone while wearing the Apple Vision Pro, even when wearing the headset, and visionOS supports relaying calls from iPhone so you can accept a call from the Apple Vision Pro.
Rebecca Bellan is a senior reporter at TechCrunch, where she covers Tesla and Elon Musk’s broader empire, autonomy, AI, electrification, gig work platforms, Big Tech regulatory scrutiny, and more. She’s one of the co-hosts of the Equity podcast and writes the TechCrunch Daily morning newsletter.
Previously, she covered social media for Forbes.com, and her work has appeared in Bloomberg CityLab, The Atlantic, The Daily Beast, Mother Jones, i-D (Vice) and more.
Rebecca has invested in Ethereum.
