The Vision Pro uses your digital representation—dubbed Persona—while videoconferencing on FaceTime or other apps, but the feature will arrive in beta.
Apple said today that the Vision Pro pre-orders will kick off on Friday, January 19. As part of the announcement published in the Apple Newsroom, the company revealed in the fine print section that the Persona feature “is available in beta.”
This indicates that early adopters may expect hiccups with this feature until it exits beta at some point in the future.
What is the Persona feature in visionOS? How does it work?
The Persona feature answers the question, “How do you record the face of the headset wearer on a video call?” Since the Vision Pro can’t record your head while wearing the headset, it recreates your face digitally.
This works seamlessly. You’re asked to scan your face with the headset’s external cameras during visionOS setup, in a process similar to Face ID enrollment. This creates “an authentic spatial representation of an Apple Vision Pro user.”
Now visionOS can apply your facial expressions recorded by internal cameras and hand movements captured by external cameras to your digital avatar in real-time. People on a FaceTime call see your persona instead of your natural face.
“If a user is wearing Vision Pro while on FaceTime, they appear as their Persona, while others joining from a Mac, iPad or iPhone will appear in a tile,” Apple explains.
Your Persona is also available in third-party videoconferencing apps, including Zoom, Cisco Webex and Microsoft Teams.
Apple calls the Vision Pro “the most advanced consumer electronics device ever created” with the “revolutionary and magical user interface.” visionOS lets you use your gaze, touch, voice and air gestures to navigate its three-dimensional interface.
The Vision Pro is arriving February 2
The $3500 headset will be available to purchase in Apple’s brick-and-mortar and online stores in the United States beginning February 2. The Vision Pro will expand to other countries later in 2024.
The headset will ship with an external battery pack that provides about two hours of general use on a single charge. Your run time increases to 2.5 hours when watching a 2D movie in a VR environment as long as you’re streaming from Apple’s TV app.