Since I make apps for Apple's platforms, WWDC is the main event of my whole year. The developer conference is a time where Apple announces plans for the next major versions of visionOS, iOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS.
Sometimes we get major new announcements, like visionOS and the Apple Vision Pro at WWDC23.
I have been making apps for visionOS ever since and I’m really excited about where this platform is heading.
My wishlist for visionOS
- Supercharge the Shared Space
- I want apps to be able to leverage knowledge of the users hands when they are inside a volume in the shared space. Think of making a drum set app where you can position each drum as a volume just where you want it, and then play in the shared space while you have your music up in another app, and maybe be recording in GarageBand in another window
- FB16447897 (visionOS Hand Anchoring Component in Shared Space (Volumetric Windows))
- As a developer, I want to offer “pinning” hints to visionOS. I want to be able to suggest that this window could be pinned to a table of minimum width/depth or to a wall or next to a TV, …
- I want to allow ARKit sessions to run within the overlap of my volumetric windows in the shared space. Let me “see” the mesh or table or wall that the volume overlaps with. Let me see the relative position of my open windows / volumes in the shared space. With this, I could make an app where you place a volume in opposite corners of a room and get the dimensions quickly.
- As a user, I want to make a mapping of my home and name the rooms, ideally maybe even those are picked up and/or synced with HomeKit. Then allow me to share that with developers in a privacy preserving way so that I can configure apps to work differently in different rooms as I move around.
- I’d like to be able to pin multiple instances of an app to different rooms and have the app available to me when I am in the room, and dismissed when I leave the room
- Native development tools on visionOS - Reality Composer Pro, Xcode, Swift Playgrounds
- Shared in-person sessions where each visionOS device has a common anchored position for content. To interact in a mixed immersive space with others would unlock some great experiences
- Shared in-person sessions between visionOS, iOS, macOS. With RealityView on all of these platforms, having a common coordinate space would again unlock some powerful interactions
- Spatial Templates for any number of participants (visionOS or not). I want to be able to provide “seat” assignments to everyone whether they are sharing a Spatial Persona or not, and whether they are even on a visionOS device or not. This would allow me to place people at “tables” for a conference session, or give proper assignments for a game night
- TabletopKit for iOS and macOS also. Extending this framework to any platform that has RealityView support seems natural to me.
- FB13873238 (TabletopKit support for iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS)
One more thing…
I’d like to give my aspirations for where I hope Apple might be headed. I’m sure that I’m wrong, but I want to put out there what I would like to see and cast my own view of the future out there.
The next big evolution I see is around Spatial Computing. I want to see Apple combine the awareness of where I am in space (Center Stage) to turn the flat displays of iPhone, iPad, Mac, AppleTV into portals into immersive spaces. If I use my iPhone with an AppleTV I should be able to use Continuity Camera to enable this same tracking on a big TV.
With a full awareness of my position relative to the display, the display now becomes a view in space that I can move my head around to explore and watch it respond in real time.
Maybe I can use an Apple Pencil Pro to poke into the space for more precise selection.
Then I want a truly Spatial Home Screen and work environment. When I open my MacBook at my office desk, my work environment is ready for me, with slack tucked away to the side. I can “look around the corner” to pull out the music mini player and manage other glanceable tasks.
