Testing the New Apple Vision Pro Spatial Persona

[MacRumors]

As of this week, Apple Vision Pro users can set up a spatial Persona, which is a new version of a Persona that's designed to make it feel like you're interfacing with other people right in the same room. We thought we'd test out the spatial Persona feature to see how it works and whether it's an improvement over the regular Persona option.

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Spatial Personas have a translucent background and include the head, hands, and top part of the torso to provide a more natural feel so that it seems like the people in the conversation are in the same physical room with one another. With spatial Personas, people can move about in their real world space, and that's reflected in the virtual setting. Persona location is the same for all people on a call, so if there are five participants, each one has a different location just as they would sitting together in a room.

If you look at or point to someone on the call, the other participants can see where you are looking or pointing. Voices are also directional relative to where each person is at.

Standard Personas show only a person's face and are limited to a small tile, but spatial Personas have a much more immersive feel. Apple has been improving Personas since the Vision Pro headset launched, and while there's still an uncanny valley feel to them, the visuals are much improved and overall less creepy.

Spatial Personas can be used for watching movies and TV shows together, FaceTime and other video calls, using apps like Freeform, playing games, and more.

As of right now, spatial Personas are live in visionOS in a beta capacity, with the visionOS 1.1 update required. Spatial Personas work with up to five participants.

Article Link: Testing the New Apple Vision Pro Spatial Persona

 

[infiniteentropy]

Ok, Apple, I'll be the one to say it:

Would you mind doing something useful with this hardware?

 

[relaxedpanda]

Features like this have existed for years on other VR/AR headsets, and it's the same issue here.

These types of interactions are meant to be in person. If you are trying to have these types of meetings and/or interactions, I would re-think just meeting in person.

FaceTime is simply that, seeing someone. Personas are not even that, it's just a hologram of you and makes the interaction feel even less personal than just a normal (real) video call.

 

[Fuzzball84]

Ok, it's all very nice...

It has a few niche uses...but really at this price... there is literally any other product at Apple that has way more function and value...

 

[Fuzzball84]

Features like this have existed for years on other VR/AR headsets, and it's the same issue here.

These types of interactions are meant to be in person. If you are trying to have these types of meetings and/or interactions, I would re-think just meeting in person.

FaceTime is simply that, seeing someone. Personas are not even that, it's just a hologram of you and makes the interaction feel even less personal than just a normal (real) video call.

Exactly... it's another barrier, layer, that nobody wants.

It's artificial, it's cumbersome.... the only good thing is that at least it's not as weird as Metas avatars.

 

[Born Again]

Game changer! /s

Honestly guys I’m concerned Apple is dropping the ball on VR.

Where are the games? Should be sold with some remote controls…

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Exactly... it's another barrier, layer, that nobody wants.

There was a time when no one wanted mice.

There was a time when no one wanted virtual keyboards on cellular phones.

Those folks likely never got to the point of wanting one or the other, but the market grew to support the millions and billions that did want those.

 

[madmin]

I aint afraid of no ghost

 

[Fuzzball84]

There was a time when no one wanted mice.

There was a time when no one wanted virtual keyboards on cellular phones.

Those folks likely never got to the point of wanting one or the other, but the market grew to support the millions and billions that did want those.

I can only see this tech being useful when it reaches the point of not being a hunk of junk on your face

When they reduce it to the size go regular glasses... thats when the barrier of having a computer strapped to your face will become more acceptable.

When it gets to the point of being incorporated into contact lenses... people will wonder how we got on without it.

It takes time, for technology to advance to a point where it's not in the way... but making a way forward for us.

 

[vegetassj4]

I felt a great disturbance in Force Touch, as if millions of emoji suddenly got typed out in terror and were suddenly deleted. I fear iOS 18 Beta has happened.

 

[Fuzzball84]

There was a time when no one wanted mice.

There was a time when no one wanted virtual keyboards on cellular phones.

Those folks likely never got to the point of wanting one or the other, but the market grew to support the millions and billions that did want those.

and I think I was responding to a posters comment about the social aspect... not the tech itself. Mice and virtual keyboards didn't get in the way of seeing a person you're interacting with.

 

[i'm the mac daddy]

I felt a great disturbance in Force Touch, as if millions of emoji suddenly got typed out in terror and were suddenly deleted. I fear iOS 18 Beta has been released.

View attachment 2365179

The freaky version of the emperor

 

[relaxedpanda]

There was a time when no one wanted mice.

There was a time when no one wanted virtual keyboards on cellular phones.

Those folks likely never got to the point of wanting one or the other, but the market grew to support the millions and billions that did want those.

There was a time when software had to be shipped perfect because it was physical.

There was a time when people enjoyed tactical buttons over digital touch screens for input

Those folks still exist today, and the market grew away from this and now millions and billions of people don't want this

 

[Fuzzball84]

There was a time when software had to be shipped perfect because it was physical.

There was a time when people enjoyed tactical buttons over digital touch screens for input

Those folks still exist today, and the market grew away from this and now millions and billions of people don't want this

It cycles doesnt it...

A retro game cartridge in early 2000s... were sold for cents at garage sales... then in late 2010s and 2020s... sold for hundreds of dollars online, in shops and at auctions. 😂

 

[contacos]

Or I can just have a „floating window“ that is my laptop screen showing the actual person in the real environment that is my actual room and is not just a camera image of said very room. Much cheaper too

Still thinking this is solving a problem that does not exist.

 

[Fuzzball84]

Game changer! /s

Honestly guys I’m concerned Apple is dropping the ball on VR.

Where are the games? Should be sold with some remote controls…

Games, immersive special movies and exploration biomes and experiences... interactive encyclopaedias and learning experiences...

Instead you have personas, Apple Arcade... and being able to pin computer monitors everywhere 🤨

Oh, Im in the bathroom... oh look there's another screen pinned to the wall... oh it's just a Pages document... nothing to see here.

 

[Black Tiger]

They are still selling this thing? I’m impressed actually. I still think it will be dead within a year, but it’s lasted longer than I expected. And I’m not one of those Apple doomers. I defended the iPad, Apple Watch, and HomePod even when people were piling on predicting those to fail. This thing is just stupid.

 

[Amazing Iceman]

The last paragraph may need to be corrected to say:

As of right now, spatial Personas are live in visionOS in a beta capacity, with the ‌visionOS‌ 1.2 update required. Spatial Personas work with up to five participants.

 

[currentinterest]

I own and love my AVP. I use mine 4 to 6 hours per day. These continual improvements and capabilities make it even more fun. A hat tip to Apple for striving for innovation across the AVP platform.

 

[qCzar]

Games, immersive special movies and exploration biomes and experiences... interactive encyclopaedias and learning experiences...

Instead you have personas, Apple Arcade... and being able to pin computer monitors everywhere 🤨

The first iPhone had no apps and it was a hit. I understand that the iPhone was originally launched well before apps were a thing and now they're ubiquitous. When the iPad launched most apps were automatically scaled up to fit because they used Apple design language. Then it took a while for apps designed specifically for iPads to appear and use that space more efficiently.

Now we have a device that has never been in the Apple device ecosystem. There's no design language to bring an iOS/iPadOS app into the XR space. There's some help with iPadOS and the Keyboard case; using the trackpad to lock onto touch points is no different than using the eye tracking and locking the focus to a touch point.

But dedicated vOS apps that use the devices capabilities to the fullest will take a while. Apple kept the HMD under wraps and let few developers try it in person to test their apps. Those apps that you list will arrive in time and I find it unfair to pin the lack of apps on Apple.

 

[nfl46]

Looks great. Also, you guys should check out the app InSpaze. Only a matter of time before Apple makes something like this themselves.

 

[Tagbert]

Features like this have existed for years on other VR/AR headsets, and it's the same issue here.

These types of interactions are meant to be in person. If you are trying to have these types of meetings and/or interactions, I would re-think just meeting in person.

FaceTime is simply that, seeing someone. Personas are not even that, it's just a hologram of you and makes the interaction feel even less personal than just a normal (real) video call.

Today, I was meeting with people in London, Rome, Oslo, Chicago, Seattle, and Bangalore. tonight I'll be meeting with Sydney, Chicago, and Dallas. How do you propose that I meet with them in person? I think you are over valuing the in person experience on a day to day basis. Sure that is value in meeting people, but it doesn't need to be for every meeting and frankly there are coworkers and customers that I expect I will never meet in person.

 

[Fuzzball84]

The first iPhone had no apps and it was a hit. I understand that the iPhone was originally launched well before apps were a thing and now they're ubiquitous. When the iPad launched most apps were automatically scaled up to fit because they used Apple design language. Then it took a while for apps designed specifically for iPads to appear and use that space more efficiently.

Now we have a device that has never been in the Apple device ecosystem. There's no design language to bring an iOS/iPadOS app into the XR space. There's some help with iPadOS and the Keyboard case; using the trackpad to lock onto touch points is no different than using the eye tracking and locking the focus to a touch point.

But dedicated vOS apps that use the devices capabilities to the fullest will take a while. Apple kept the HMD under wraps and let few developers try it in person to test their apps. Those apps that you list will arrive in time and I find it unfair to pin the lack of apps on Apple.

What they should have done, considering how much money they have... is setup a team to develop a single experience app that would highlight all the capabilities for media, education, work... something that would blow people away. And help developers make killer apps for it.

But they dont have that... and what we have is very basic apps but with a product that doesnt really have much other purpose. And at an extremely high price point.

The iPhone was a great phone without waiting for apps... that made it even better. The iPad was a great tablet before having to wait for other apps.. They did what a phone and tablet should do.

with AVP... seems like they spent so much and put so much into the hardware, while neglecting the software side. The software side will take a while to catch up.

 

[Jarrodbcall]

This is probably a hot take on this site, but I actually find this really exciting. I've been "meh" about personas, but the opportunities for collaboration and virtual hang outs is really exciting to me. This feels like one of the big perks of a vision pro, in addition to watching movies.

 

[Unity451]

There was a time when no one wanted mice.

There was a time when no one wanted virtual keyboards on cellular phones.

Those folks likely never got to the point of wanting one or the other, but the market grew to support the millions and billions that did want those.

True, but this is different. This is not another Henry Ford moment giving everyone a car instead of a faster horse... this is giving a counterfeit disguised as something real. The counterfeit (no matter how good it looks) can never fully replace the original because the original is literally the essence of humanity. I'm not saying there is no place for something like this (I love facetiming my family when traveling), but the experience itself, no matter how real, is only a glimpse of the real thing.