With the iOS 17.2 beta, Apple added a feature that allows the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max to record Spatial Video that's designed for the upcoming Apple Vision Pro headset. As the Vision Pro is not yet available, there's no way to watch Spatial Video in its 3D form on an Apple device.
Spatial Video content can, however, be watched on the Meta Quest 3 and other 3D devices thanks to a workaround shared by YouTuber Hugh Hou. Earlier this week, Hou described how to manipulate Spatial Video to get it to run on Meta's VR headset.
An iPhone 15 Pro running the iOS 17.2 beta is required, of course, in order to record Spatial Video in the first place. The beta is available to both developers and public beta testers, and downloading it is as simple as going to the Software Update section in the iPhone Settings app and toggling on beta updates.
Spatial Video recording needs to be enabled in the Camera settings after the iOS 17.2 update, and from there, Hou instructs users to get the "Spatialify" app on TestFlight.
The app has instructions on decoding and exporting Spatial Video in a format that the Meta Quest 3 or other 3D headsets and TVs can view, and there is an extra step involving encoding 3D metadata.
It is not the most straightforward process, but it may be of interest to iPhone 15 Pro users who have a VR headset or 3D TV and want to try viewing Spatial Video ahead of when the Vision Pro headset comes out.
Spatial Video is designed to allow Vision Pro headset wearers to view video in a more immersive 3D format. Along with the iPhone 15 Pro, the headset will also be able to be used to record Spatial Video content.
Despite being more than two years old, Apple's AirPods Pro 2 still dominate the premium wireless‑earbud space, thanks to a potent mix of top‑tier audio, class‑leading noise cancellation, and Apple's habit of delivering major new features through software updates. With AirPods Pro 3 widely expected to arrive in 2025, prospective buyers now face a familiar dilemma: snap up the proven...
Tuesday April 22, 2025 10:22 am PDT by Juli Clover
Apple plans to release an all-new super thin iPhone this year, debuting it alongside the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max. We've seen pictures of dummy models, cases, and renders with the design, but Lewis Hilsenteger of Unbox Therapy today showed off newer dummy models that give us a better idea of just how thin the "iPhone 17 Air" will be.
The iPhone 17 Air is expected to be ...
Thursday April 17, 2025 4:12 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models simultaneously, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 17 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect from Apple's 2025 smartphone lineup.
If you skipped the iPhone...
Tuesday April 22, 2025 5:01 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
A developer has demonstrated Windows 11 ARM running on an M2 iPad Air using emulation, which has become much easier since the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA) regulations came into effect.
As spotted by Windows Latest, NTDev shared an instance of the emulation on social media and posted a video on YouTube (embedded below) demonstrating it in action. The achievement relies on new EU regulatory...
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices.
Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.
Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of April 2025:
Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and ...
Apple seeded the third beta of iOS 18.5 to developers today, and so far the software update includes only a few minor changes.
The changes are in the Mail and Settings apps.
In the Mail app, you can now easily turn off contact photos directly within the app, by tapping on the circle with three dots in the top-right corner.
In the Settings app, AppleCare+ coverage information is more...
Tuesday April 15, 2025 6:31 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Apple is preparing a "bold" new iPhone Pro model for the iPhone's 20th anniversary in 2027, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. As part of what's being described as a "major shake-up," Apple is said to be developing a design that makes more extensive use of glass – and this could point directly to the display itself.
Here's the case for Apple releasing a truly all-screen iPhone with no...
Wednesday April 16, 2025 11:28 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
If you have been experiencing issues with wireless CarPlay in your vehicle lately, it was likely due to a software bug that has now been fixed.
Apple released iOS 18.4.1 today, and the update's release notes say it "addresses a rare issue that prevents wireless CarPlay connection in certain vehicles."
If wireless CarPlay was acting up for you, updating your iPhone to iOS 18.4.1 should...
This doesn’t seem to busing the depth data, which I believe Apples headset will be using for those spatial videos. #earlydays
Incorrect. The spatial videos are just standard 3D videos, using 2 different cameras side by side. It doesn't record any other "depth data".
Apple, in typical Apple fashion, led people to believe that these "Spatial Videos" are much more than what they really are (by showing a promo video that inferred that you could walk around the video and see different viewpoints). But...that's not what you're getting.
They're just normal 3D videos. Nothing groundbreaking here.
I suspect Apple has a few more computational tricks that are performed. The majority of Vision Pro reviewers thought that the spatial effects went way beyond what had previously been achieved.
Nah, those Vision Pro reviewers clearly had no experience with VR media consumption. This pretty much sums it up:
"Until now Apple didn't actually say what Spatial Videos are, other than to say they "have incredible depth that lets you see into a moment". Apple's marketing clips seemed to suggest ('https://www.uploadvr.com/iphone-15-pro-spatial-video-vision-pro/') Spatial Video was something much more than just stereoscopic video, with volumetric parallax depicted, but it's clear now this marketing was misleading. Apple confirmed to CNET's Scott Stein ('https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/apple-iphone-spatial-video-arrives-in-beta-and-looks-amazing-on-vision-pro/?ref=uploadvr.com') and TechRadar's Lance Ulanoff ('https://www.techradar.com/computing/virtual-reality-augmented-reality/i-tried-the-iphone-15s-new-spatial-video-feature-and-it-will-be-the-vision-pros-killer-app?ref=uploadvr.com') that Spatial Video is in fact just 3D stereoscopic video, two 1080p 30FPS captures embedded into the same file with the Apple HEVC Stereo Video Profile format, an implementation of MV-HEVC." __
Before this converter tool was released, I did an experiment of my own by taking 2 normal photos with the ultrawide and main cameras, cropping the ultrawide to match the main camera, and then viewing them as a side by side 3D image. The depth exactly matches what you see in these Spatial Videos, so there is no extra trickery that Apple is doing here.
Incorrect. The spatial videos are just standard 3D videos, using 2 different cameras side by side. It doesn't record any other "depth data".
Apple, in typical Apple fashion, led people to believe that these "Spatial Videos" are much more than what they really are (by showing a promo video that inferred that you could walk around the video and see different viewpoints). But...that's not what you're getting.
They're just normal 3D videos. Nothing groundbreaking here.
Have you USED the Vision Pro yet? I didn’t think so. You’re operating on the assumption that it’s like today’s VR headsets.
How "3-dimensional" is a video recorded with two cameras spaced by a few mm?
I suspect Apple has a few more computational tricks that are performed. The majority of Vision Pro reviewers thought that the spatial effects went way beyond what had previously been achieved.