What I would like to see in visionOS 3!

Just made a video with all the things I would like to see in visionOS 3! Feel free to give it a watch and let me know if you agree or if I missed any features you think should be added. I’ll also paste the video script here in case some of you would rather read than watch! Either way, let me know your thoughts here on Reddit as well as over on YouTube!

Video script:

Wishlist for VisionOS 3

Alright, so we’ve gotten our first major visionOS update with visionOS 2, but if we’re being honest, that was really just visionOS 1.5 and primarily focused on features that should have been here on Day 1, like I don’t know, rearranging your apps, being able to see your keyboard in an immersive environment, actually being able to use a Bluetooth mouse just to name a few. So this means that the upcoming visionOS 3 update will be the first real update that isn’t primarily focused on features that should have been there at launch, though there are plenty of those that still exist that I will mention. So here’s are roughly 20 features and changes I hope to see brought to the Vision Pro with visionOS 3.

Unlock iPhone and other nearby devices while wearing Vision Pro B-roll: possibly include the Apple Watch message of unlocking iPhone, include the unlock iPhone with Face ID while wearing mask setting.

The first feature I’d like to see brought to the Vision Pro is the ability to unlock my iPhone and other nearby devices while wearing the Vision Pro. There is absolutely no reason why I should have to manually unlock my iPhone while I’m wearing my $4000 Apple face computer. It clearly knows I’m wearing the headset which is unlocked, so just automatically unlock my iPhone, iPad, Mac, and other Apple devices when I’m wearing Vision Pro and looking at the device. Sometimes my Apple Watch will unlock my iPhone while wearing Vision Pro but that seems to be a carryover from the feature that would allow your Apple Watch to unlock your iPhone when part of your face was obscured by a face mask or glasses. Apparently these sometimes register as super big glasses. But regardless, there’s no reason why I should have to manually unlock any of my devices while wearing Vision Pro. Give me a little pop-up on Vision Pro when my device is unlocked and give me the option to manually lock the device from the headset if someone holds my phone screen up to my face or something. This is how it works for the Apple Watch unlocking the iPhone. This feature feels really simple and a no-brainer.

Enhance the display quality of all Apple devices when looking at them. B-roll: Shot of me struggling to look at my phone from VP perspective, cut to external camera of me straining to read my phone Also, I start by straining to look at my iPad, shake my finger, turn to the side and drag the airplay screen of my iPad onto the physical iPad display as a proof of concept

Secondly and somewhat related, all screens of Apple devices should be auto-enhanced when looking at them while wearing Vision Pro. There is absolutely no reason why I should be straining to read my phone through passthrough. Whenever I look at my iPhone, iPad, Mac, or any other device, not only should it Auto Unlock, the display should immediately be enhanced to full resolution. This too is another example of how Apple has failed to take advantage of the magic that is the Apple ecosystem.

Allow multiple user profiles

The next feature I’d like to see is multiple user profiles. I’ve heard many of the defenses as to why Apple won’t do this: “Apple meant for this to be a personal device,” “You don’t see iPads with multiple user profiles,” “Apple wants people to buy their own headset instead of sharing it; multiple user profiles would hurt their sales.” I really think that’s incorrect and doing the opposite of what is intended. For one Apple does allow multiple user profiles on Mac, and Apple is calling this a spatial computer and certainly pricing it as a computer, so multiple user profiles would be in line with their sentiment of calling this a computer. Or perhaps Apple doesn’t actually view this as a computer. But also, Apple sells multiple light seal sizes. So one could theoretically buy a separate light seal fitted for their spouse, family member, or friend, and that would allow them the personalized fit that is so important for Vision Pro. But to the point of the iPad, it’s true that Apple doesn’t offer multiple user profiles for the iPad, and while I wish they did, the argument of not doing so in hopes of people buying a separate iPad for themselves or another person in the household actually makes sense. This is because iPads are astronomically less expensive than the Vision Pro. It’s actually feasible in a family with 4 kids for everyone to have their own iPad. This is certainly not the case with Vision Pro simply due to the price point. I think it actually works in the opposite direction. I don’t think people who have a family member with a Vision Pro and try it are considering buying one to use occasionally. Instead, I think it’s much more likely that a couple or household would buy a Vision Pro if everyone in the household could easily use it, but instead they don’t buy it because it isn’t worth the price for just one person to be able to use it. Multiple user profiles would benefit everyone. More users would get to experience the magic of spatial computing, more overpriced light seals would be purchased, and Apple would genuinely, in my opinion, sell more units. They’ve tried to mitigate this a bit in visionOS 2 by allowing a single guest user to save their eye and hand tracking data, but it only saves for 30 days and certain features like FaceTime are still unavailable, plus the owner has to allow the device to be put into guest mode before use. This doesn’t really address the problem that a second user can’t just pick up the device and use it. I work during the day and don’t bring the Vision Pro to work. It would be nice if someone else in my household could easily use the headset while I was gone. (Alright that’s lie. I actually do bring my Vision Pro to work and I don’t trust anyone in my household to use my Vision Pro without my direct supervision, but perhaps it makes sense for others with more careful and responsible family members.) Plus, even if they could access the headset, they then have access to everything unless I specifically disable apps before giving it to them. And that’s not even mentioning that if they take the headset off for any reason, it exits guest mode! Overall, it’s just really unnecessarily cumbersome, and this could all be fixed with separate user profiles. It scans the user’s eyes, and then they’re instantly in their own profile. Seems like a no-brainer. I hope Apple realizes this and implements this feature.

Allow other apps to be opened in immersive apps/experiences and allow apps to donate their environments to the system B-roll: Showing InSpaze and Disney+, have my ultrawide Mac screen in avengers tower, and my inspaze room.

The next feature I’d like to see is the ability to open other apps in immersive experiences and to allow apps to donate their environments to the system. I love immersive apps like inSpaze as well as Disney+. One thing, however, that makes me not like the immersive versions of these apps is that, unlike Apple’s system environments, I can’t open and run other applications in those immersive environments. I would love to work in Avengers Tower or open other apps in my inSpaze room, but right now, I can’t because you can’t run other apps in a 3rd-party immersive environment, other than running Mac Virtual Display if you have a developer account. So it would be nice if Apple either allowed us to run other applications in 3rd-party immersive environments or just let apps like Disney+ donate their environments to the system so that if you subscribe to Disney+, you can dial into any of those environments on your own without being in the Disney+ app. That would be a great addition.

Allow multiple sources of audio to play at the same time B-Roll: Watching two videos, one pausing when I play the other

I’ve previously mentioned how Apple likes to position this devices as a computer, but it’s hamstrung by all the limitations of iPadOS compared to macOS. One of those limitations is not being able to have multiple sources of audio playing at the same time. It’s quite annoying that I can’t have multiple videos with audio playing simultaneously. I enjoy watching baseball through the MLB app in the Vision Pro but I like to have YouTube up as well so I can watch a video during the commercial breaks. However, I still want the game to be playing so I see when it comes back from commercial break. I can’t do that in Vision Pro, if I press play on one video, the other one automatically pauses, which is very annoying. Also, sometimes I’m watching a video and would just like some quiet background music while watching. Can’t do that either. Definitely an easy fix and something that would make using the Vision Pro even better.

Improvements to Mac Virtual Display B-roll: Final Cut example of issues, and video of MVD disconnecting and showing my screen

There are various improvements that would make Mac virtual display more useful. The most obvious one that would be nice but I really don’t think we’re getting, is multiple Mac displays. The ultrawide monitor was a nice addition but there are still some limitations. For one, I can’t stack displays vertically. My home setup has 4 physical monitors, 3 next to one another and one above. I like having a Mac display above for quick glancing, and obviously the current Mac virtual display even with ultrawide doesn’t let you do that. But even if they don’t do that, there are still some other limitations that they need to fix. For one, despite the ultrawide display being as large as 2 4K monitors, the system doesn’t let you take advantage of certain settings that are only available when you have multiple monitors connected to your Mac. One example is within Final Cut, I can’t pop the video preview out into a separate window so that I can see the timeline on one screen and the preview on another, like I can when I have my Mac Mini connected to 2 physical monitors. Same thing with Zoom calls. Putting aside the audacious choice of joining a Zoom call using your persona, which I have done by the way, when someone shares their screen, it doesn’t put the shared screen in a separate window like it does when you have multiple monitors connected to your Mac. Zoom does have a native visionOS app, but it still doesn’t support certain functionality like webinars and generally has more issues so I usually just use my Mac for Zoom with Mac Virtual Display. Also it’s a bit annoying that when you connect Mac virtual display to a Mac with multiple monitors like a desktop, when you disconnect, it throws all the windows onto one monitor, so then you have to re-place your windows onto the physical displays. So it’s little things like this that over time I’m sure will be fixed but do cause some issues and keep this from fully being able to replace my multiple monitor setup.

Also, one of the amazing benefits of working in Vision Pro is the privacy it provides. It's super great to have a private Mac monitor wherever you go. But a downside is that if Mac Virtual Display (MVD) gets disconnected, it immediately shows whatever is on your Mac screen. It seems like a no-brainer that due to the privacy provided by MVD, if it disconnects, the Mac should automatically lock. So I really hope Apple takes the opportunity to make Mac Virtual Display even better in visionOS 3.

Ability to pin a window to my periphery B-roll: Show windows and how they turn transparent when you move them, Final Cut window of me talking, becomes solid when I say “solid”

The next feature I’d like to see is the ability to pin a window to my periphery. One of the downsides of the windows being locked in place is that you can’t really have them move with you, unless you pinch the bottom bar and walk around while holding it, but that’s not really feasible. It would be nice if I could pin a window to my periphery that moves when I walk around. Sometimes I’m walking around the house doing chores or cooking, and it would be nice to have a video follow me around. I understand the safety concern of having part of your view obscured by a window while moving, but this could be alleviated by having the window become transparent whenever you start moving, like is already the case when you manually move windows. Then it becomes solid when you stop moving. This would be a nice addition.

Apple Pencil Pro support for Vision Pro B-roll: Show touch desk app with finger and show how the pencil doesn’t work with it, writing in the air with airdraw

I’d also love to see Apple Pencil Pro support for the Vision Pro. I was really hoping we’d get this when they launched the Apple Pencil Pro or at WWDC last year. It would be very useful if I could write on a table or whiteboard using the pencil. Even writing in the air could be cool with the haptic feedback enabled by the Pencil Pro. It would be super useful to write on a large table and be able to save it in files and come back later to write. I could totally see Apple offering a special pencil tip that would allow you to write anywhere and not damage the tip or surface (kind of like strike-anywhere matches). Charging could be an issue considering the Pencil Pro currently charges inductively on the side of the iPad, but I have complete faith in Apple’s ability to conjure up some overpriced, over-engineered charging solution! This would definitely be a nice addition that could really take advantage of spatial computing.

Allow multiple personas to be saved B-roll: Show various iterations of my persona, how it would be nice to switch

The next feature I’d love to see is the ability to save multiple personas. If Apple wants the headset to be used for work and leisure, they need to allow us to save multiple personas, potentially one more formal persona wearing nicer clothing, one everyday casual persona, and then hopefully one wearing a silly costume if we want. This would greatly improve the persona experience. There have been times where I wanted to see what my persona would look like wearing a Halloween costume, but then I would have to redo my main persona, which can be a hassle. I hope that Apple brings this in VisionOS 3.

Allow audio to be recorded during FaceTime calls B-roll: Screen recordings of FaceTime calls with no audio

FaceTime also has some issues. It is very annoying that when you screen record during a FaceTime call, it doesn’t allow audio to be recorded. I’ve had so many fun and memorable interactions in spatial persona FaceTime calls, and I’d love to be able to record these with audio. It frankly makes for great marketing material for Apple if recordings could be shared with audio. My understanding as to why Apple doesn’t allow audio to be recorded during FaceTime is for privacy reasons. I don’t see why this couldn’t be solved by alerting everyone in the call if someone starts recording, or even requiring everyone in the call to click a button to allow screen recording, and if they don’t, it just doesn’t record their audio. That seemingly would be a solution that would account for the privacy concerns. This would really be a game changer.

Find My app on Vision Pro

It would be very nice to have a native Find My app on Vision Pro, or really any sort of Find My app. It’s a bit ridiculous that we can’t even use the iPad version on Vision Pro. But this seems like an opportunity to make a Find My app that takes advantage of spatial computing. Imagine being able to visually locate items around your house while wearing Vision Pro. If you can’t find your phone, you can still ping it, but if it’s in the living room stuck under a couch cushion, it’ll show you where it is with some sort of arrow or spatial marker. That would be incredible. How about a 3D map that shows you where people and items are in the world? There are so many opportunities for the Find My app to be optimized to take advantage of spatial computing and I hope Apple uses visionOS 3 as an opportunity to do so.

More native visionOS apps B-roll: Screenshots of all the iPad apps

Within that same vein, there are many of Apple’s own apps that are still just iPad compatible apps. It’s honestly ridiculous. Apple positioned iPad compatible apps on Vision Pro as a stopgap solution so that you could use an iPad version of an app while the developers created native visionOS versions of their apps. But over a year later, and so many of Apple’s own apps are still just iPad compatible ones. Maps, Books, News, Podcasts, Clock, Calendar, Home, Reminders, Shortcuts, Voice Memos, Stocks, Pages, and Numbers are all just iPad compatible apps. Apple, what are you doing? How are we supposed to have confidence in the future of this platform when you all can’t be bothered to update your own apps for visionOS? Especially since it seems like some apps are so obviously suited for the Vision Pro. Apple Maps seems like a perfect example, with the flyover feature, the volumetric landscapes and buildings, and implementing immersive street view would be amazing. This is long overdue, but I hope Apple uses visionOS 3 as an opportunity to catch up and update these apps. Alright let’s talk about guest mode.

Allow the Vision Pro to be remotely controlled during guest mode

If you’ve watched my other couple of videos, particularly my one-year review, you know I have some particularly strong opinions about the guest mode and demo process. Well, it seems like Apple must’ve watched my video because they have seriously improved the guest mode and demo experience with the announcement of visionOS 2.4 which is now in beta. Now, don’t get me wrong, there is still a lot of room for improvement, and many of my criticisms still stand. But considering the bar was on the ground, I’m still very happy with the improvements. Now you don’t need to turn on guest mode before giving it to someone else, you can select which apps their can access from your iPhone or iPad, and you can initiate and pause screen mirroring from your iPhone or iPad. So these are great new additions and address the most glaring issues with guest mode previously. With that being said, Apple, I hope you’re watching this video as well because I still have some requests and things that would make the guest mode even better. For one, it would be very helpful if I could remote control the device and launch apps in guest mode. In my review, I spoke to the intuitiveness of visionOS, and that’s still very much the case. But when you’re giving a demo, you want to reduce friction as much as possible. Here’s what I would ideally want from Apple in terms of the guest mode process. The guest puts on the headset, presses the crown to initiate guest mode, holds down the crown to align the displays, and they’re in, no eye or hand tracking. I then would be able to control everything from my iPhone or iPad; it would be as if they’re at the movie theater, and I’m controlling what they see and hear. Now, I understand there may be some difficulties with this solution; the biggest one being due foveated rendering, eye tracking is required to fully render wherever you’re looking. But at least when you’re going through the eye setup process, it seemingly is already tracking your pupils and knows where you’re looking even before you tap your fingers. That’s why the dot responds as soon as you look at it. But even if calibration is necessary, maybe only doing one round of eye setup as opposed to three? What if before they watched an immersive video it quickly asked them to look at a few points on the screen quickly? Maybe full eye setup is necessary; I don’t know. Regardless, allowing me to control the device while there is a guest using the headset would be incredible. Like I said, reducing the amount of time between when they put the headset on and they start watching an immersive video is crucial to showing people how magical the device is. Also, this device is heavy! And your guest is using a light seal that is fitted for you, not them. So they are likely to experience facial discomfort much faster, which is all the more reason to reduce the amount of setup time as much as possible, and the amount of time it takes for them to navigate the OS. The less time between when they put the headset on and start watching an immersive video, the better.

Saved spaces potentially tied to focus modes B-roll: Window setup video

The next feature I’d love to have is saved setups, specifically workspaces tied to focus modes, as well as saved window setups in physical spaces. visionOS 2 addressed this somewhat with window persistence but having workspaces and setups tied to focus modes would be super helpful for productivity. Perhaps by default I want my Mac screen in the middle, my email on the right, Microsoft teams on the left, and spatial menu bar above. It would be super nice if I don’t have to set up my whole workspace every time I want to work. Also, it would be cool if it knew my house and would position windows in the same place all the time. Imagine if I could wake up, put my Vision Pro on, see my daily to do list on the wall in my bedroom. I walk into the bathroom and there’s the morning news feed on the mirror. I walk downstairs and see the Apple TV app projected on the wall over the TV, and there could even be posters and pictures on the walls. That would be incredible.

More Battery Settings and Screen Time B-roll: Battery settings

This section of settings is pathetic. Why even have a section settings that only has one toggle and it’s to control something as minuscule as whether to show the battery percentage? I would love having way more battery settings similar to other Apple devices that show me how much screen on time I’ve had over the past day and week and just on average how much battery life am I getting. Low power mode would be nice as well. Give me the option to enable low power mode which would disable some non-essential features such as the front eyesight display, the rendering of my hands and keyboard in immersive environments, disables persona and face tracking, disables Apple Intelligence, turns off other non essential sensors, and other things that are normally disabled like background app refresh, mail fetch, iCloud photo syncing, and general performance is slightly reduced. I don’t know why we don’t already have these features on Vision Pro, but I hope Apple fixes this in visionOS 3.

Allow EyeSight display to be customized

Piggybacking off of the battery section, being able to customize the eyesight front display to show things such as the time, date, battery level, weather, notifications, and other things when plugged in and not wearing the headset would be super cool. I have a stand on my desk where I put the Vision Pro when I’m not wearing it and it would be awesome if it could display helpful information such as the time, date, battery level, weather, notifications, and others. And perhaps even being able to customize the front display to have personalized messages while wearing it would be cool. I work at the tech help desk at my college and I wear the Vision Pro while I work. It would be cool to be able to display a message that says “CIT Help Desk” or something else. However, I can understand Apple being concerned about the optics of people walking around with a front display that says “Fuck you, don’t talk to me” but I’m sure they could not allow certain words, just like they don’t allow you to engrave certain words on their products. I doubt Apple will ever allow this but it would be great if they did nonetheless.

Allow other content to be watched in the cinema environment. B-roll: environment cinema vs Apple TV cinema

It was a nice touch in visionOS 2 allowing other content to be watched on the big screen in environments, but it would be very nice to also be able to watch content in the standard cinema environment from the Apple TV app. I find it unlikely that Apple will do this considering that they’ll likely want to keep that exclusive to the Apple TV app, but hey, if they did, that would be awesome.

Allow system warnings to be disabled. B-roll: System Warnings showing up, lying down in bed

Please for the love of god let me turn these warnings off. The move back notifications are so sensitive and even if I just look down while lying down it tells me to move back since it seemingly can’t comprehend that I have a body. Or if I even sit anywhere close to my wall it freaks out. Low light notifications as well, anything less than perfect lighting and I get the notifications constantly. As well as the notifications to adjust the Vision Pro. Just please let me turn them off. I’ll sign whatever waiver Apple wants stating I won’t sue them if I walk into a wall. Whatever it takes, please.

Allow iPhone Mirroring and phone calls on Vision Pro B-roll: Getting a phone call while wearing Vision Pro

It’s quite annoying that my $4000 face computer can’t take a simple phone call. Please fix that Apple. iPhone mirroring on macOS is a great new feature, it would even be more useful on Vision Pro when using your phone is more difficult. Being able to mirror your phone screen and interact with it would be really nice.

Enable Apple Watch haptic feedback when using the virtual keyboard B-roll: Typing on virtual keyboard

This is a very niche and low priority suggestion but would still be nice to have. When using the virtual keyboard it would be nice if there was an option to have some haptic feedback on the wrist when typing. Just would be a nice to have.

Conclusion

Alright so that’s about all I’ve got. Let me know in the comments if I missed any features you think should be added in visionOS 3. Apple has a lot they can improve upon with the next update so here’s to hoping that they bring at least some of these features in visionOS 3. Feel free to check out these two videos, here’s one if you want to learn what updates are coming to visionOS 2.4 and feel free to check out my one year review of the Vision Pro. If you enjoyed this video, please leave a like. I recently picked up the iPhone 16e and I’ve been using it for a few days now and will be posting a review in the near future, so be sure to subscribe for that as you won’t want to miss it! As always, feel free to let me know your thoughts in the comments, and thanks for watching.