logo
visionOS 26 introduces powerful new spatial experiences for Apple Vision Pro

visionOS 26 introduces powerful new spatial experiences for Apple Vision Pro

Tahawul Tech10-06-2025

Widgets become spatial and anchor in a user's space, Personas are more expressive and realistic, and new APIs unleash exciting opportunities for developers, creators, and enterprises.
CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA — Apple previewed visionOS 26, an expansive update packed with groundbreaking spatial experiences and new features for Apple Vision Pro. Everyday interactions become more immersive and personal, with widgets that integrate into a user's space, spatial scenes that use generative AI to add stunning lifelike depth to photos, striking enhancements that make Personas feel more natural and familiar, and shared spatial experiences for Vision Pro users in the same room.
visionOS 26 also adds support for 180-degree, 360-degree, and wide field-of-view content from Insta360, GoPro, and Canon, while new enterprise APIs allow organizations to create spatial experiences unique to visionOS. And with support for PlayStation VR2 Sense controllers, players can enjoy a new class of games on Apple Vision Pro.1
'Apple Vision Pro has defined what's possible in this new era of spatial computing, and with visionOS 26, we're excited to push the boundaries even further,' said Mike Rockwell, Apple's vice president of the Vision Products Group. 'With brand-new ways for Vision Pro owners to connect, explore, work together, and enjoy content, we're incredibly excited for users to enjoy features like apps and widgets that they can arrange in their spaces, spatial scenes that offer a brand-new viewing experience for their photos, and dramatically enhanced Personas on Vision Pro.'
Widgets Become Spatial
Across the Apple ecosystem, widgets offer personalized and useful information at a glance, and with visionOS 26, widgets become spatial, integrating seamlessly into a user's space and reappearing every time they put on Apple Vision Pro. Widgets in visionOS 26 are customizable, with a variety of options for frame width, color, and depth. Beautiful new widgets — including Clock, Weather, Music, and Photos — all offer unique interactions and experiences.
Users can decorate their spaces with favorite widgets, including stunning panoramas and spatial photos of their favorite memories, clocks with distinctive face designs, and quick access to their go-to playlists and songs on Apple Music. The Widgets app helps users find widgets, including those from compatible iOS and iPadOS apps, and developers will also be able to create their own widgets using WidgetKit.
Enhanced Shared Spatial Experiences
Users love how visionOS lets them connect with family, friends, and colleagues remotely, and with visionOS 26, they can share spatial experiences with other Apple Vision Pro users in the same room. They can come together to watch the latest blockbuster movie in 3D, play a spatial game, or collaborate with coworkers. Users can also add remote participants from across the world via FaceTime, enabling connection with people near and far.
Dassault Systèmes, a leading provider of engineering and 3D design software, is leveraging this ability with their 3DLive app, bringing the ability to visualize 3D designs both in person and with remote colleagues.
With visionOS 26, Personas are transformed to feel more natural and familiar. Taking advantage of industry-leading volumetric rendering and machine learning technology, the all-new Personas now have striking expressivity and sharpness, offering a full side profile view, and remarkably accurate hair, lashes, and complexion. Personas are still created on device in a matter of seconds, and new improvements to the setup process allow users to adjust and preview how their Persona looks spatially, and even pick glasses from over 1,000 variations.
Introducing Spatial Scenes
visionOS 26 makes spatial photos even more realistic, leveraging a new generative AI algorithm and computational depth to create spatial scenes with multiple perspectives, letting users feel like they can lean in and look around.
Users can view spatial scenes in the Photos app, Spatial Gallery app, and Safari, while developers can use the Spatial Scene API to make their app experience even more immersive. Zillow is taking advantage of the API for their Zillow Immersive app, allowing users to see images of homes and apartments with the rich depth and dimension that spatial scenes offer.
New Ways to Browse, Play, and Watch
Users can select spatial browsing to transform articles on Safari, hide distractions, and reveal spatial scenes that come alive as they scroll. Web developers have the ability to embed 3D models directly into web pages, letting users shop and browse with depth and dimension, and see and manipulate 3D objects and models right in Safari.
visionOS 26 supports native playback of 180-degree, 360-degree, and wide field-of-view content from Insta360, GoPro, and Canon. Users can enjoy their exciting 2D action footage the way it was meant to be seen. Developers can incorporate this new playback capability into their apps and websites.
visionOS 26 also introduces support for the PlayStation VR2 Sense controller. Now, developers can deliver even more engaging gameplay experiences for Apple Vision Pro thanks to high-performance motion tracking in 6 degrees of freedom, finger touch detection, and vibration support.
Enterprise APIs and Tools
Companies around the world are harnessing spatial computing on Apple Vision Pro to supercharge their workflows for design, training, sales, education, and more. New capabilities like team device sharing let organizations easily set up and manage a shared pool of devices. Users can securely save their eye and hand data, vision prescription, and accessibility settings to their iPhone running iOS 26 and bring it to another Vision Pro, making sharing easier than ever.
visionOS 26 adds support for Logitech Muse, a spatial accessory built for Apple Vision Pro that enables precise input and new ways to interact with collaboration apps like Spatial Analogue.1
Enterprise-focused APIs, like the new Protected Content API, ensure that only people who have been granted access can see confidential materials like medical records or business forecasts, while preventing copying, screenshots, and screen sharing.
Additional visionOS 26 features include:
More Apple Intelligence features
— including updates to Image Playground — come to Apple Vision Pro. visionOS 26 also adds support for new languages: French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish, along with support for English in Australia, Canada, India, Singapore, and the UK.
2
Look to Scroll
allows users to explore apps and websites using just their eyes. Users can customize the scroll speed, and developers can integrate Look to Scroll into their visionOS apps.
In the redesigned Control Center
, features like Guest User, Focus, Travel Mode, and more are conveniently displayed in one view, letting users effortlessly manage their music, adjust their Environment settings, and connect to Mac Virtual Display.
Users can unlock their iPhone while wearing Apple Vision Pro
, even in a fully immersive experience like an Environment. This feature can be enabled in Settings for Face ID-enabled iPhone models running iOS 26.
3
visionOS 26 supports relaying calls from iPhone
, so a user can now answer phone calls directly from Apple Vision Pro, or start a call from People View by selecting a contact's phone number or clicking on a phone number in a web page.
4
Home View now supports folders
, letting users rearrange and group apps together.
Availability
All of these features are available for testing starting today through the Apple Developer Program at developer.apple.com. For more information, visit apple.com/ae/visionos. Apple Intelligence requires Apple Vision Pro running visionOS 26 with Apple Intelligence enabled and Siri and device language set to the same supported language: English (Australia, Canada, India, Singapore, UK, U.S.), French (Canada, France), German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish (Mexico, Spain). Features are subject to change. Some features may not be available in all regions, all languages, or on all devices, and compatible hardware and software may be required.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Trump's World Liberty Financial signs partnership deal with London hedge fund
Trump's World Liberty Financial signs partnership deal with London hedge fund

Crypto Insight

time14 hours ago

  • Crypto Insight

Trump's World Liberty Financial signs partnership deal with London hedge fund

World Liberty Financial (WLFI), a crypto platform tied to US President Donald Trump's family, has partnered with London hedge fund Re7 to launch a USD1 stablecoin vault across Euler Finance and liquid staking protocol Lista. The partnership is part of a broader effort to expand the presence of World Liberty's USD1 stablecoin on the BNB Chain, according to Bloomberg. Lista is one of the major liquid staking platforms for the BNB token, and its decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), which governs the platform, is backed by Binance Labs — the venture capital arm of crypto exchange Binance. Binance Labs invested $10 million in Lista in August 2023. At the time, Lista was known as Helio Protocol and the capital was meant to aid the platform's transition to a liquid staking provider. WLFI continues to receive backing from institutional investors as US dollar stablecoins and real-world asset tokenization — the two sectors the DeFi platform is focused on — become strategically important to increasing the salability of the US dollar, a major priority of the Trump administration. WLFI attracts institutional capital In April, crypto market maker DWF Labs purchased $25 million in WLFI tokens, the governance token of the WLFI platform. The market maker will also provide liquidity for the USD1 stablecoin as part of the investment deal. Aqua1 Foundation, a digital asset fund, announced a $100 million investment in the Trump-affiliated DeFi platform, citing WLFI's focus on stablecoins and real-world asset tokenization as major use cases that would restructure global finance. Trump reported $57 million in income from WLFI to the US Office of Government Ethics in a June 13 disclosure filing, the bulk of which appears to have come from token sales. Despite the investment deals and windfall income, the Trump family reduced its stake in WLFI by 20% since 2024. Source:

ONVIF and the C2PA announce collaboration to strengthen trust in digital video
ONVIF and the C2PA announce collaboration to strengthen trust in digital video

Zawya

time16 hours ago

  • Zawya

ONVIF and the C2PA announce collaboration to strengthen trust in digital video

ONVIF®, the leading global standardization initiative for IP-based physical security products, has announced that it has entered into a strategic collaboration with the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) to preserve the integrity and authenticity of digital video in the evolving fight against content manipulation. The two groups will work together to raise awareness and promote the adoption of open standards that help verify the authenticity of video content across digital video platforms. This initiative aligns the ONVIF video authentication specification with Content Credentials, the open standard published by the C2PA, which is comprised of Microsoft, Adobe, Google, Meta, BBC, and Truepic. Content Credentials enhances transparency and establishes end-to-end confidence in the authenticity of digital assets. This collaboration comes at a time when synthetic media, deepfakes, and AI-generated content are becoming increasingly indistinguishable from authentic footage. The tools that create this fake content pose a significant risk to public trust in video used for law enforcement, corporate security, and legal proceedings as well as in a wide range of digital media products. 'We are happy to welcome ONVIF as a liaison member to the C2PA,' said Andrew Jenks, Executive Chair of the C2PA. 'As the global standard for provenance, Content Credentials plays a vital role in providing transparency in digital media. The collaboration with ONVIF and the C2PA brings Content Credentials to video security – an environment where footage must reflect reality without alteration. We're excited about our work together and the impact of our global, open standards.' The video authentication specification developed by ONVIF, known as media signing, ensures that video footage is cryptographically signed at the point of capture with a digital key specific to the individual surveillance camera. The signatures are embedded in the video, enabling an authentication tool to verify whether video frames – throughout the chain of custody – have been modified or manipulated since they left the camera. This is critical for video used in court proceedings, law enforcement investigations, and corporate security incidents, where any doubts about the validity of video evidence can undermine outcomes and erode institutional trust. The C2PA's core specification, Content Credentials, is a technical standard that allows publishers, creators, and consumers to trace the lifecycle of media, beginning from production (such as which camera captured an image, whether it was edited, and when) to consumption (displaying this information on the website or platform where the content appears). Content Credentials embed cryptographically signed, tamper-evident metadata directly into images, video, audio, and documents or stored in a manifest that travels with the content, making any alteration detectable. This metadata acts like a digital 'nutrition label,' detailing the content's origin, history, and any modifications made. 'Preserving the authenticity of video has never been more important as the threats from generative AI and other means of content manipulation continue to increase exponentially, regardless of industry and use case,' said Leo Levit, Chairman, Steering Committee, ONVIF. 'The work of ONVIF to preserve video integrity and the recognition by the C2PA will help build user confidence that recorded video can be verified as genuine and untampered.' ONVIF is a leading and well-recognized industry forum driving interoperability for IP-based physical security products, with a global member base of established camera, video management system and access control companies and nearly 34,000 profile conformant products. ONVIF offers Profile S for streaming video; Profile G for video recording and storage; Profile C for physical access control; Profile A for broader access control configuration; Profile T for advanced video streaming; Profile M for metadata and events for analytics applications and Profile D for access control peripherals. ONVIF continues to work with its members to expand the number of IP interoperability solutions ONVIF conformant products can provide. Further information about ONVIF conformant products, including member companies and their conformant models, is available on the ONVIF website:

Digital legacy: When you die, who's going to tell the internet?
Digital legacy: When you die, who's going to tell the internet?

The National

time18 hours ago

  • The National

Digital legacy: When you die, who's going to tell the internet?

After her husband Alan's death, Gina Seymour found dealing with all his online accounts and virtual paperwork was 'pretty close to a nightmare'. Alan died in 2018, aged 57, after suffering a brain haemorrhage that meant he had been unable to prepare for what would happen to his online life. 'It was a struggle because you don't realise or you forget how many accounts there are,' says Mrs Seymour, an author who works as a school librarian in Long Island, New York. 'Most of them are used every day, like your Gmail, and others only come up once in a while, or once a year, or you don't use [them] as frequently. 'Just when you think you're done, you're actually not. You missed one. It's stressful, to say the least.' Mrs Seymour's experience highlights the issue of 'digital legacy', the way in which almost everyone today has an online presence – and it often cannot simply be forgotten after their death. Many of us have digital accounts for, at least, banking, investments, shopping, tax and messaging. Pass on your password According to password management company NordPass, the average person has 168 passwords, of which 87 are for business-related online accounts. That creates significant challenges for someone dealing with a loved one's digital legacy, especially if that person did not leave behind account details and passwords. 'So many things in our lives have shifted online or have online components. The biggest problem is logistical headaches,' says Dr Jed Brubaker, an associate professor of information science at the University of Colorado Boulder. 'We have so many things that are new, that don't have pre-digital analogues. Maybe your partner was the person who managed your monthly mortgage payment and it went to their email, and all of a sudden you no longer have access to their email. You can think of all of the standard things that now have this additional digital layer.' While these practical issues are important – and very taxing for surviving relatives dealing with them – a person's digital legacy also encompasses things of great sentimental value, notably photographs and videos. Items that were traditionally passed down, such as photo albums, now often exist only in a mobile phone or in the cloud in remote servers, and may be beyond the reach of relatives who do not have access credentials. Dr Brubaker, who manages a free digital legacy clinic run by students, says photos are what bereaved relatives care about the most, although videos are becoming increasingly important. 'In end-of-life plans we're ensuring that people have set them up such that their loved ones can gain access to what is effectively the modern-day scrapbook,' he says. If the bereaved cannot view or download a relative's pictures it can cause what James Norris, founder of the UK-based Digital Legacy Association, describes as a second loss. 'After you have lost someone, you can have a feeling of losing something else from that person,' he says. Major internet companies, such as Apple, Facebok owner Meta and Google, typically have a legacy contact feature, enabling users to designate an individual to deal with their online presence after their death. 'If you have set up plans in advance you have access to download the photos and save them locally,' Mr Norris says. The association recommends that individuals and health and social care providers consider digital assets during end-of-life planning. 'We're based in a hospice provider,' he says. 'Often the conversation we have with patients is: 'Have you got a password on your mobile phone?' They would say yes. 'If they haven't told anyone their password, their digital legacy planning is simply telling their son or partner or grandchild their password so they can access their photos. 'The main thing is for each person to think about each of their online accounts and make suitable plans based on the content and the relationship with loved ones.' Curate your digital legacy People wanting to curate their digital legacy can turn to numerous specialist sites. Among them is Inalife, set up by Nicholas Worley, a British communications professional in Hong Kong. Mr Worley, the father of three young sons, was partly inspired to set up the site, which went live in 2023, by the experience of becoming a parent. 'I thought it would be quite nice if they could have memories of when they were younger – their first swimming lesson, their first steps, all those sorts of things,' he says. Some of his father's family's photos in the UK were destroyed during the Second World War, which has highlighted to Mr Worley the risks of having only a single hard copy of an image. 'It's easier to save things digitally and to have that as a back-up. I wanted to save things across generations, and technology helps you do that,' he says. 'Most people tend not to think about it unless they're older or facing an illness. It's the same with most legacy planning. Giving more attention to it is important.' Users can create sub-profiles for relatives and sub-accounts for children, to whom ownership can be transferred at a particular time, such as when they turn 18. When it comes to public sites such as Facebook, X (formerly Twitter) and LinkedIn, people might want to consider how much of what they have uploaded they would like to remain on view after their death. Some people may prefer accounts to be deleted. 'Everything that we put online, it stays there, unless a company goes bankrupt or the site has a plan in place. There's a lot of our lives out there online,' says Dr Heather Moorefield-Lang, an associate professor of information, library and research sciences at the University of North Carolina Greensboro. 'You have to make your choices as to what you might want people to shut down for you. Are you fine just leaving it out there?' Dr Moorefield-Lang says many people are uncomfortable talking about death, dying and what will happen afterwards, but trying to sort things out after someone has died is no easier. 'Planning and communication takes care of a whole lot of issues later, if your kids and your friends aren't sure what you want,' she says. 'You want to take as much off their shoulders as possible, even if it's just sitting down and talking about it. It costs nothing but time.' After the difficulties of dealing with her late husband's digital legacy, Mrs Seymour has made sure that things will be easier for her children when she dies. She has written details of her online accounts and passwords in a book. 'I know the first rule of internet safety is 'don't write your passwords down',' she says. 'But you have got to write that stuff down. It's in a book, it's all there. The only people who know where it is are my children.'

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store