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Mastering the Latest Update: Apple’s Spatial Mapping on Vision Pro Explained | Tech Tips

Jason Hiner/ZDNET

Apple has added spatial Personas to the Apple Vision Pro ‘s Persona beta, letting up to five participants interact with each other in a virtual environment.

By showing an interactive virtual rendering of a user, leveraging spatial audio, and keeping track of where everyone is in the virtual space, spatial Personas makes the Apple Vision Pro an even more immersive experience. Vision Pro users can engage friends, family, and coworkers with Vision Pro headsets to perform actions together through FaceTime, like writing or drawing on Freeform, watching movies, or playing games as if they were hanging out in the same room.

Also: Apple Vision Pro is on sale for the first time ever, but there’s a catch

A sped-up look at what spatial personas look like.

Apple

Apple explains that SharePlay-enabled apps let all users interact with VR content collaboratively while still maintaining some control over their individual viewing experience. Users can reposition content to their liking without affecting other users’ experiences.

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With spatial audio, Vision Pro users can also keep track of other Personas’ direction and distance in the virtual space.

Also: I watched Apple’s newest Immersive Video on the Vision Pro, and it was my ‘aha’ moment

Currently, you can only enable spatial Personas during a FaceTime call. Apple said that developers are working on games and collaborative apps that would allow Vision Pro users to interact with multiple spatial Personas as if they were sitting around the same table.

How to enable spatial Persona

Spatial Personas are now available on the Apple Vision Pro with visionOS 1.1. Here’s how to use spatial Personas:

Start a FaceTime call and tap on the spatial Persona option to switch from a FaceTime tile to the immersive spatial view.
Interact with other users in the same virtual space through SharePlay.
Switch between your spatial Persona and the FaceTime tile at any point.

If you have a Vision Pro running visionOS 1.1 but can’t see the spatial Persona option during a FaceTime call, you may need to reboot your device.