4 visionOS 3 features that can turn Vision Pro into an everyday device

Since Apple isn't making a cheaper headset anytime soon, it has to renew interest in the Vision Pro with software.

- BY JASON CROSS

The Vision Pro has been a flop, plain and simple. By most accounts, it is not even close to meeting Apple’s own meager internal sales expectations. And worse, it is out of the public consciousness entirely—even Apple fans often forget about it.

Better, cheaper hardware is one way to breathe more life into “spatial computing,” but since that’s not coming soon, Apple needs to double down on software. VisionOS 2 felt like visionOS 1.4 than a major step up, probably because it came so soon after the headset's release. VisionOS 3, which will be announced at the Worldwide Developers Conference on June 9 (fave.co/4js1b84) and released later this year, is the first real opportunity for Apple to fully address feedback from actual customers and developers. If they want us to start strapping on the headset every day, these are some things we want to see.

WORK SMARTER

My biggest issue with the Vision Pro is that it’s just bad at anything that isn’t 3D video or mildly interactive entertainment. When it comes to productivity—and that includes not just business spreadsheets but also taking notes, managing my calendar, or researching which coffee grinder to buy—it’s awful.

It's difficult to run multiple apps at the same time without context-switching between them, and the windows all take up way too much space. Entering text is slow and painful. You can hunt and peck with your eyes on a virtual keyboard or use voice transcription, which never works as well as it should. Of course, you can always use a Bluetooth keyboard, but moving your hands between interacting with the visionOS interface and down to the keyboard is tiresome. And the video passthrough struggles enough in low light that it can be hard to see your keyboard clearly.