Photo and Video

Spatial Scenes

When visionOS 2 introduced the ability to turn regular photos into spatial ones, I couldn’t say enough good things about the feature. I was obsessed with experiencing my favorite memories in this new way. Spatialized photos were – and continue to be – enchanting, adding a whole new dimension to the photo-viewing experience in a way only the Vision Pro can.

This year, Apple has taken the concept of spatializing photos even further and expanded it beyond visionOS. Across its platforms, the company is introducing what it calls spatial scenes. Like spatialized photos, these enhanced versions of your pictures intelligently separate layers based on depth; what makes them spatial scenes, though, is that the system then uses a new AI algorithm to generatively fill in the gaps between layers, giving you the ability to view your photos from different perspectives.

On iOS, this feature enables 3D lock screen photos that dynamically shift as you move your device around, as well as a similar effect in photo widgets. But of course, spatial scenes are the most impactful on Vision Pro, where you can fully experience the 3D depth effect that’s added to your photos.

Spatial scenes can be viewed in Photos, Spatial Gallery, and Safari, though curiously, not in photo widgets, which display spatial photos instead of spatial scenes. Creating a spatial scene from your own photo follows the exact same process as spatializing a photo did last year: open the picture in the Photos app and select the shape icon – now a hexagon instead of a cube – in the upper-right corner of the preview. Even the animation for creating a spatial scene is the same as the one used for creating spatial photos last year. After a couple of seconds, the app will present you with your new spatial scene.

Viewing a spatial scene gives the impression of looking through a window into the world of your image. Whereas elements in spatial photos can seem like they’re coming towards you out of the photo’s frame, spatial scenes are contained behind the plane of the photo window. Like spatial photos, they have an added layer of depth that makes them feel more immersive than regular photos.

The immersion only deepens when you start to move around while looking at a spatial scene, and it’s this experience that really sets the feature apart from what came before. If you move your head or even walk around while viewing a spatial scene, the image does not shift around in response to your changing perspective. Instead, the image stays in place, allowing you to see different aspects of the scene from different angles while moving around. It’s hard to describe in words, but it’s a truly stunning experience.

Imagine holding a printed photo in your hand. That’s what 2D images are like: flat. Now, imagine cutting the subject and various objects within that image out, separating them from the background, and pasting them on a horizontal surface with space between them to represent depth. That’s what a spatial photo is like: you can see the relationship between different layers, but the details are still the same. Now, imagine taking a photo and recreating its elements as lifelike 3D objects in a diorama, allowing you to not only experience depth but different perspectives on the same image. That’s what spatial scenes are like.

When I look straight on at a picture I’ve converted to a spatial scene, I can see exactly what I’d expect to: the subject separated from the background with a sense of depth added in. But when I start to move around, I can get a different perspective on the image, seeing people and objects from various angles and even catching glimpses of details that are initially hidden from view.

These scenes offer even more of what I loved about spatialized photos in visionOS 2. The added depth and perspective go further to make you feel more like you’re experiencing a memory than a photo. When the effect works and you’re immersed in it, the emotional impact of viewing photos in this way is quite powerful. It’s as close to actually revisiting a beloved moment as I’ve ever come.

You will notice that I added the caveat “when the effect works.” Because it doesn’t always. Spatial scenes rely even more heavily on artificial intelligence than spatialized photos do, going so far as to generate content that doesn’t appear in the original photo itself. Done sparingly in the right context, this can work really well. But there are some photos that simply don’t mesh with this approach.

Like spatialized photos, spatial scenes struggle when there isn’t a clear distinction between the subject of a photo and the background, or when there are multiple subjects at varying distances from one another.³ Aspects like lighting conditions, motion, and resolution have a great impact on the final result of spatial scenes, which really need a high-quality original to work from. And there are times when the AI model filling in the gaps in photos gets things wrong, adding in blurry swaths of color that distract from images rather than adding to them.

For some pictures, the old spatial photo approach is still the best one, which is why I’m thankful Apple chose to keep that functionality available in the Photos app, now within a photo’s menu. Spatialized photos also offer a larger viewing area in panoramic mode than spatial scenes, which can make the viewing experience more enjoyable when the added perspective isn’t needed.

That said, I do think spatial scenes are an exciting step forward for immersive photos, and I find myself converting my pictures into spatial scenes more and more. I don’t want AI generating images for me or changing details in my favorite photos, but when it can be used to make the experience of revisiting pictures I love more fun and rewarding, I’m all for it. Consider me a fan of spatial scenes.

New Video Formats

The Vision Pro’s unique video capabilities are some of its most beloved features. Who would have thought that watching 3D films at home would be something people want to do in 2025? And yet, here we are, with new 3D titles coming to the TV app every week. iPhones can shoot spatial videos with nice depth effects, and Apple Immersive Video continues to showcase the best of what video on visionOS can offer, taking viewers on emotional and thrilling immersive journeys across the world.

But these types of videos aren’t the only ones that offer unique experiences in mixed reality, and visionOS is expanding its video capabilities substantially this year. Apple has teamed up with Insta360, GoPro, and Canon to add native support for the companies’ 360-degree, 180-degree, and wide field-of-view videos using a new standard called Apple Projected Media Profile (APMP). These videos can be played from the Files app via Quick Look or streamed in Safari, and developers can add support for the formats to their apps, too.

Watching these videos on Vision Pro feels as natural as watching any other. They can be viewed in a regular video window on visionOS or any other platform, but when opened in fullscreen view on visionOS, they expand around the user along an invisible spherical grid, taking up more of the field of view based on how wide the video’s angle is. 360-degree video fully surrounds you, allowing you to look up and down and even turn around to see more content. 180-degree video fills out in front of you but not behind you, and wide field-of-view takes up less space. Watching videos in any of these formats is impressive, though.

And there’s never been a device more fit for these types of videos than Vision Pro. Other platforms let you look around within these videos using touch or a cursor, but in visionOS, you can just look around with your eyes to experience the scale and detail of the videos naturally. It’s another opportunity to be immersed in the content you’re watching, and it’s quite effective. Apple’s media profile uses metadata from each video to precisely map it out in front of the user and avoid any distortion, giving these videos the massive, awe-inspiring stage they deserve.

Capturing these types of videos is much more approachable than a standard like Apple Immersive Video. While there are some filmmakers trying their hand at the format now with Blackmagic’s URSA Cine Immersive camera, there are many more people out there with action cameras capable of recording wide field-of-video and beyond. Now, they can watch and share their videos on visionOS, whether they be extreme sports clips, walkthroughs of beautiful places around the world, Dungeons and Dragon campaigns, or home videos captured in a fun, different way.

Insta360 kindly sent me one of their action cameras, the X5, so I could try capturing and playing back my own 360-degree videos. Though my videography skills might leave something to be desired, the process couldn’t have been more simple. I captured a video on the camera, transferred it to my phone via the Insta360 app, and synced it over iCloud to my Vision Pro. From the Files app, I was able to preview the video in a standard player view, and then, when I hit the fullscreen button, it suddenly appeared all around me, encompassing me in my very own home video footage.

Basically, capturing and viewing a 360-degree video was as simple as taking a video from any other camera. But the payoff of watching the video was much more rewarding. These formats offer even further opportunities to step back into moments we love with levels of detail and immersion that were previously impossible. I can watch a video filmed in my living room and literally look all around it, taking in every aspect. How precious is that video going to be in ten years when, at the very least, the room is going to look vastly different than it does now, covered in toys for my toddler and my dog?

I’m not even in Insta360’s core demo because I don’t participate in extreme activities that make for great action shots. But even just for simple home videos, a wide field of view adds a great deal of richness that I know I’ll get value from as I revisit videos over the years. And it’s the way visionOS has implemented these formats that makes them so easily accessible.

360-degree, 180-degree, and wide field-of-view video are great additions to an already impressive lineup of video offerings on visionOS. Teaming up with the camera manufacturers to ensure not only compatibility but the highest quality experience was a smart way to move into this space, and I hope that other providers of this content such as YouTube will adopt APMP as well.