I was FaceTiming with a dear friend when suddenly he popped out of the stationary call window from the other state and landed in my living room We adjusted our spaces so that we were sitting side by side to watch the trailer for the Apple TV Plus series "Sugar" starring Colin Farrell Then we switched to TikTok and scrolled through videos, laughing together at the ones we both found funny

But then a few texts arrive that I have to respond to, so I pick up my friend with a pinch of my fingers and move him to the other side of the room as if he were as light as a feather Of course, it is not their physical bodies that I am actually positioning, but the virtual personas that have just gained spatial freedom through the latest visionOS beta feature released for Apple Vision Pro

Spatial personas make Vision Pro's face-tracking avatars feel truly 3D Now, when you are on a FaceTime call with someone using Vision Pro, a see-through persona-like icon will appear on the other person's tile When both call members toggle this icon, they are reset within a shared hangout space that they can each control

When I first launched the spatial persona, I worried for a moment that my friend in front of me would actually be able to see into my living room I had not anticipated visitors, and my space could certainly have looked tidier They assured me that was not the case, but that is how real it felt to have them in my sight

As two people who have used the Apple Vision Pro for several weeks, we have become almost desensitized to the lingering creepiness of the personas FaceTime calls in the headset no longer feel uncomfortable But having a virtual version of a friend near you who can walk around you is a whole new experience

But what use is there for spatial personas other than to make catching up with friends feel more real? You can just enable this feature and allow the caller to sit in the app they have open, but it is best used in conjunction with screen sharing and SharePlay

Whether you want to show off what you are seeing in your view or collaborate within a SharePlay-enabled app, doing so using spatial Persona seems more natural than expected Spatial audio allows the other person's avatar to be heard relative to their direction and distance

If there is one uncanny thing about spatial personas, it is that everyone on the call has the authority to move other personas into space When my friends realized they had been swapped far back in space while I was replying to my earlier email, they gasped in shock I don't know if you necessarily need to ask permission before moving your friends, but beware of someone materializing inches in front of your face without warning

It's up to developers to make their apps compatible with spatial personas One of our favorite Vision Pro apps, Game Room, already allows you to play games with others at a table If everyone's headset is visionOS 11 or later, up to five call members can use spatial personas

Since the days of Covid, various gadgets have promised to bridge the physical gap between people communicating remotely If you ask me, Apple has finally given us the next best thing to actually being together