Why Apple insists on 'spatial computing'
Don't use the R-word (reality) or its modifiers (augmented, virtual, mixed or extended), says Apple.
Apple posted a new page on their developer website that includes style guidelines for Apple Vision Pro, which tells developers how to refer to, spell, capitalize and otherwise use words associated with Apple Vision Pro.) (Preorders for the $3,499 Apple Vision Pro begin next week and the product ships February 2.)
Here’s the style guide in its entirety:
Follow these style guidelines when writing about Apple Vision Pro and visionOS, including when marketing your app outside of the App Store.
Apple Vision Pro: Always typeset Apple Vision Pro as three words with an uppercase A, V, and P followed by lowercase letters. Don’t break Apple Vision Pro over two lines. Don’t use the article the before Apple Vision Pro. Apple Vision Pro apps are available on the App Store or can be downloaded from the App Store. It’s acceptable to say Name of app for Apple Vision Pro when your promotion is focused on features and benefits related to Apple Vision Pro. Don’t refer to Apple Vision Pro generically as a “headset.” The phrase “Apple Vision Pro” can’t be included in your app name, but it can be included in your app description.
visionOS: visionOS begins with a lowercase v, even when it’s the first word in a sentence.
Spatial computing: Refer to your app as a spatial computing app. Don’t describe your app experience as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), extended reality (XR), or mixed reality (MR).
App Store: Always typeset App Store with an uppercase A and an uppercase S followed by lowercase letters. Refer to just the App Store unless you need to be more specific; in that case, you can use the App Store for Apple Vision Pro.
Always set visionOS, Apple Vision Pro, and App Store in English, even when they appear within text in a language other than English. These terms should not be translated or transliterated.
The term “spatial computing” was coined in the 80s, but given its current and modern definition by Simon Greenwold in his 2003 MIT Media Lab thesis. In that work, Greenwold defines spatial computing as “human interaction with a machine in which the machine retains and manipulates referents to real objects and spaces.” By “spaces,” Greenwold meant both real and virtual spaces — both AR and VR and, for that matter, any space, including a 2D desktop with folders and icons.
Apple’s “spatial computing” mandate and AR, VR, XR and MR prohibitions are accurate in one sense and inaccurate in another.
Few understand the difference between augmented reality, for example, and spatial computing. The difference is that AR, well, augments reality. If you’re wearing special glasses that show you digital and virtual instructions for use hovering over your toaster, that’s AR. The toaster is the reality and the instructions are the augmentation.
But if you’re using Apple Vision Pro for a meeting and have three people in the meeting hovering in space holographically, that’s not AR. The real-time avatars are not augmenting, enhancing, explaining or improving upon objects or spaces in your office. They’re just there without reference to physical objects. Those hovering digital representations aren’t virtual reality, either, as the space you’re seeing is in fact your own physical office.
Importantly, Apple Vision Pro also enables digital virtual objects to be placed on surfaces. For example, you should be able to make a virtual switch and put it on the wall of your office. Flipping the switch could turn off a real or virtual light, for example.
The use of digital virtual objects that don’t refer to physical reality, or that refer to them without augmenting them, is what makes Apple Vision Pro non-AR, and what in fact makes it a spatial computing platform.
Also, Apple’s demonstrated use of 2D surfaces (icons, holographic avatars, etc.) floating in 3D physical space also matches Greenwold’s “spatial computing” idea.
But here’s what’s inaccurate about Apple’s mandate.
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