Starting today, Vision Pro personas will be able to do more than hover like a ghost in FaceTime calls. Now, you can use them in SharePlay-enabled apps to collaborate, play games, or watch media with other people.
Apple is calling this a âspatial Persona.â The idea is to make it feel like youâre in the same physical space as another user. It was part of what Apple showed in developer previews last year but hasnât been available in the actual Persona beta until now. Itâs a bit hard to imagine, but you can see what it looks like in the video below.
This feels like a great step forward in realistic avatar presence. However, itâs a bit hard to judge how these Personas actually feel in XR. Also, if this indeed becomes the next step, replacing cartoony avatars, then hopefully Meta and the other vendors will follow. Foundational improvements like these really should end up in, say, OpenXR.
Fun example of playing chess virtually as Personas: https://twitter.com/i/status/1775355740208636079
Apple coming out strong with avatars is something that plays well with their fanclub, strategically really nice moves. Makes me wonder how Meta will respond? Maybe another Zuck review in the backyard grilling meats?
This is the real game-changer, from https://twitter.com/benz145/status/1775452336720142816:
One of the coolest parts of Spatial Personas is you can be chatting and still launch any other multitasking app while itâs happening. You arenât locked into a âchatâ app which restricts you from most other content.
Seeing all the buzz on Twitter about Personas it seems Apple hit the sweet spot.
I canât believe Meta showed Codec Avatars in 2019 already, but hasnât managed to get them in production. Even the Zuckerburg and Lex Fridman interview shown some months ago needed PC-based avatar rendering, with no clear roadmap on when they will become available on standalone Meta headsets.