Spatial Web Browsing

Reading an article in spatial browsing mode.

While visionOS offers wildly novel experiences when it comes to photos, videos, 3D objects, and more, one area where the platform has been very traditional up to this point is web browsing. In visionOS 2, Safari looked very similar to its counterparts on Apple’s other platforms and offered a similar experience as well. Apple’s hoping to start to change that this year with the introduction of what the company refers to as the spatial web.

It’s the Internet we know and (mostly) love, but with the added capabilities of mixed reality. It starts with spatial browsing, Apple’s take on Reader mode in an immersive context. Spatial browsing is available on any website that’s compatible with Reader mode, and Safari will remind you of that fact with a blue banner across the URL bar anytime you load a supported webpage. Tapping that banner or the spatial symbol on the right side of the URL bar will take you into the spatial browsing experience.

When viewing a webpage in this mode, Safari will spawn an immersive environment that hides all other windows and centers the content of the webpage in your view. The environment is composed of a colored haze with a hue that’s automatically selected to complement the content you’re viewing. If you’re reading an article, the text of the page is set against this hazy backdrop in a focused reading view, with images automatically converted to spatial scenes as you scroll. (Spatial scenes themselves can also be embedded in websites.) To the right of the content, there’s a small window that displays the page’s title and details, as well as a button to summarize the page if you wish.

Spatial browsing includes a special view for videos.

Spatial browsing also works on video sites, centering the video in the environment free of window chrome with details and suggestions in the accessory window to the right side. And you can load regular, non-supported pages in the spatial browsing view as well. They’ll appear in a simplified version of the regular browser window with the environmental glow behind them, and the window will switch to the more spatial view when you navigate to a supported site.

Personally, I find spatial browsing best when I use it sparingly for specific websites. For the most part, I use my web browser as part of a bigger workflow and don’t want to be siphoned off into a single window. But when I’m catching up on my reading list or checking out a video, it is great to have the option to block out everything else and focus just on the content in front of me. Plus, it does feel cool to experience the sites I visit in a more immersive way. Spatial browsing is Apple’s first attempt at applying Visions Pro’s unique capabilities to the everyday web experience, and it has its benefits. I just wouldn’t leave it on all the time in its current iteration.

There’s more to the spatial web than just spatial browsing, though. Safari now supports viewing and interacting with 3D models embedded directly in webpages. Website owners can add these objects using the <model> HTML element, and the implementation has been really well thought out.

Models are rendered behind the surface of the window so they don’t jut out into the user’s view unwelcomed. Model views can be styled with CSS and lit with custom IBL image files to give them a particular look. They can also be animated to show off different angles and attributes of the item being represented. And to make sure webpages are still accessible to users on platforms other than visionOS, web developers can include fallback elements like images and 2D renders for non-spatial browsers to present in lieu of 3D models.

This is another example where Vision Pro takes a concept we’ve been approximating on 2D screens forever and makes it literal. Turning over a 360-degree render of a product I’m shopping for with touch on my iPhone is great, but you know what’s even better? Actually seeing the model rendered in 3D space. Not only can models be interacted with on websites, but they can be dragged out of the browser window and placed within the user’s environment as well. There’s no need to scan your room with your phone’s camera and peer at a tiny AR model of the couch you’re shopping for on the screen when you can just place the model in your space and see it at 1:1 scale instead.

Viewing and interacting with 3D models is one of the most fun and interesting things one can do on Vision Pro. Bringing that capability to the web makes so much sense, and as AR devices become more popular, these elements will become more and more common across the Internet. This capability has the potential to be really powerful for e-commerce sellers, artists showing off their work, and so many more people who publish on the web.

An immersive environment offered by a website in Safari.

Websites can also now offer visitors immersive environments to hang out in while they browse. If a site includes an immersive environment, an option to enable it will appear in the Page menu accessed via the icon on the left side of the URL bar, though Safari doesn’t offer any special indicator to let you know an environment is available. As a fan of immersive environments, I wish I had access to many more options, so Apple lowering the bar for publishing them from the App Store to the web at large is a big win in my book. I guess the question we need to answer now is, “What would a MacStories immersive environment look like?”

The final puzzle piece in the spatial web, at least for now, is video. Apple Immersive Video, spatial video, and 360-degree, 180-degree, and wide field-of-view video can all be streamed within Safari in visionOS 26. Videos appear normally when played in the embedded video player but expand to their full size and immersion level when played in fullscreen.

It’s great to see all of these elements I appreciate about native experiences on visionOS come to the web. I imagine it will be some time before the spatial web grows to a point that we can see its full potential, but the basic building blocks are now in place, and they’ve been implemented in a way that’s accessible for web developers, inclusive of non-spatial platforms, and a meaningful addition to the experience for Vision Pro users. Spatial web? I say bring it on.