Tuesday, September 16, 2025

visionOS 26

Apple (release notes, security, enterprise, developer):

visionOS 26 brings powerful new spatial experiences to Apple Vision Pro, including widgets that integrate seamlessly into a user’s space and reappear every time they put on Vision Pro; more expressive, realistic Personas; and spatial scenes, which offer a new viewing experience with lifelike depth for photos. Spatial browsing transforms articles on Safari and lets developers embed 3D objects directly into web pages, plus users can share Vision Pro experiences with people in the same room — like watching the latest movie together or supercharging collaboration with coworkers. Users can unlock and view their iPhone while wearing Vision Pro, and can save their hand and eye data on iPhone to make sharing Vision Pro easier than ever. A new interactive Environment, Jupiter, lets users speed up time to see the planet’s enormous storms swirl across its surface. visionOS 26 also adds support for native playback of 180-degree, 360-degree, and wide field-of-view content from action cameras, including select models of Insta360, GoPro, as well as Canon, letting users enjoy their exciting 2D action footage the way it was meant to be seen.

See also:

Previously:

Update (2025-10-06): Jason Snell:

The ultimate fate of Apple’s vision products remains unclear. I have to assume that the long-term goal is a pair of lightweight glasses that we can use to overlay software on top of our world. Everything between now and then is about developing the technology to make that possible. And with visionOS 26, Apple is doing what it needs to be doing: iterating, making everything better, and building out an entirely new operating system one block at a time.

[…]

But the pace of change is sometimes frustrating. Apple has made great strides with some of its best features, like Spatial Personas, while others seem to be moving more slowly. The new Jupiter Environment is technically impressive, but the feature needs more attention.

As always with visionOS, it comes back to the long game. As long as Apple keeps pushing forward and building out its AR platform of the future, I’ll be confident that the company is on the right track. visionOS 26 offers robust evidence that the work remains ongoing, but the to-do list remains a mile long.

Dan Moren:

So, I’ve tried using the Vision Pro for a variety of work tasks over the past few months. I’ve written in it. I’ve revised. I’ve even edited a podcast. I’ve put it through its paces. I’ve tried to get things done. And while it does offer some capabilities that you won’t find anywhere else, that emphasis on “tried” has all too often been well-earned.

[…]

I really do love the immersive environments; it’s the number one thing that brings me back to the Vision Pro. But even they aren’t all upside. They can feel a bit static after a while—one reason that I’m intrigued about Jason’s visionOS 26 theory that the Jupiter environment, where there is actually a passage of time, might be a tech demo for more advanced environments in the future.

[…]

But if there’s one thing holding me back more than any other from working on the Vision Pro, it’s the tools. Or, more specifically, the lack thereof.

In some ways, the current state of the Vision Pro reminds me of the very earliest days of the iPad, when “doing work” meant you had to either find new apps that took the places of those you used on your Mac or come up with clever workarounds to make your workflows function.

Previously: