The Apple TV+ App Now Features These Fun and Unique AR Experiences

In what feels like a preview of things to come when it finally releases its first AR headset, Apple has begun unveiling some fun and interesting augmented reality experiences to accompany its Apple TV+ programming.

We began hearing reports last summer that Apple was working on this, hinting that its flagship series, For All Mankind could be the first to get the AR treatment. Now that Season 2 of the series is upon us, we’re seeing the first fruits of Apple’s own AR labours.

The new augmented reality “featurettes” have been rolled out directly within the Apple TV+ app, marking the first time the app has been used for anything other than merely watching TV shows and movies.

The new AR experiences are essentially digital extras for fans, but rather than providing things like director commentaries and deleted scenes, they actually open up the iOS AR experience with an object from the series and an opportunity to explore it and learn more about it.

The new AR section can be found by visiting the For All Mankind series title page in the Apple TV+ app, which also includes a video timeline that fills in the alternative history from the 10-year gap between season 1 and season 2, including events such as a 1975 Mars landing, Ronald Reagan winning the presidency in 1976, and the U.S. military, rather than NASA, launching the first space shuttle in 1981.

Below that, a “Dive Deeper” section shows a nice spoiler-free collection of objects found in the first season of the series, including the NASA lunar rover, the Jamestown base, and the various spacecraft, rockets, and spacesuits shown from both NASA and the Soviet side during the first ten episodes.

You can enter the AR view by tapping on the card for the object you’d like to see more of, which will let you place the object anywhere in the room you’re in, using your iPhone or iPad camera.

Notably, however, the experience goes beyond merely looking at each object. Once placed, the object will expand into a cutaway profile, with key points that you can tap on to read more information about its specific aspects or components. This allows users to explore each in much more specific detail, educating users on space-related technology as well as offering some insight into the show.

While some of the technology is fictional since of course the alternate history timeline would have led to different technological advancements, they generally reflect the real-world design principles employed by NASA and the Soviet Union, so there’s a good peek into what might have been.

Last month, Apple also released For All Mankind: Time Capsule, an AR experience in a separate, standalone app that told some of the backstories of the series’ characters through an augmented reality narrative, allowing users to interact with family photos, an Apple II computer, and other period-specific objects from the show’s storyline. These latest additions, however, have been added directly into the TV app, making them feel much more like true “DVD extras.”

For those unfamiliar with the show, For All Mankind was one of the first to debut on Apple TV+ back in 2019, presenting a fascinating and dramatic alternative history of NASA and the U.S. space program in a world where the Soviet Union won the space race by landing on the moon first. Season 1 covered the actual era surrounding the 1969 moon landing and what came after in the revised timeline, while season 2 skips ten years ahead to the early 1980s in a world where John Lennon avoided assassination, Ronald Reagan has already been in office for several years (after defeating Ted Kennedy in 1976), and the Soviet Union has settled on the moon, creating a Cold War that’s more lunar than nuclear.

The series has already been renewed for a third season, and executive producer Ronald D. Moore apparently has another four seasons worth of episodes ready to go, so it promises to keep on being a fun ride. With AR experiences like these and even an official Podcast, it’s clear that Apple is continuing to put a lot of weight behind it too.