The Vision Pro Will Launch Without This Advertised Feature

With Apple’s Vision Pro set to go up for pre-order this Friday, Apple is already preparing to brief early-access reviewers and in-store staff on its groundbreaking new spatial computing headset. However, it looks like not everything Apple showed off at last June’s unveiling will be in the final product when it arrives in the hands of eager customers.

One of the coolest features of the Vision Pro is its ability to place the user in an entirely immersive virtual environment, allowing apps and experiences to “extend beyond the dimensions of your room” and into landscapes or even a movie theatre for watching traditional 2D movies on a virtual silver screen.

By and large, those environments are still set to be part of visionOS 1.0, but one aspect of them that Apple showed off at last year’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) doesn’t seem to have made the cut for the first release.

As reported by X user @M1Astra (via 9to5Mac), Apple has quietly edited its Introducing Apple Vision Pro video on YouTube to remove the clip of the “Open Sky” environment — and similarly removed references to the feature from the Vision Pro page on its website.

As recently as January 8, 2024, Apple’s Vision Pro page read:

Environments let you transform the space around you, so apps can extend beyond the dimensions of your room. Choose from a selection of beautiful landscapes, or magically replace your ceiling with a clear, open sky. The Digital Crown gives you full control over how immersed you are.

However, later that same day, Apple updated the page to remove the reference to the open sky, replacing it with a line about turning your room “into a personal movie theater” instead.

Environments let you transform the space around you, so apps can extend beyond the dimensions of your room. Choose from a selection of beautiful landscapes, or turn your room into a personal movie theater with the Cinema Environment. The Digital Crown gives you full control over how immersed you are.

The personal movie theatre was also part of the original Vision Pro presentation at WWDC, so it’s not new. Presumably, Apple just needed something else to fill out the paragraph.

As the original description suggested, the open sky environment would let you replace the view of your ceiling with a virtual sky. The original clip in the video showed a person lying in bed and looking up at the ceiling while wearing a Vision Pro.

As usual, Apple hasn’t commented on why this feature is being removed, but it’s likely something the company’s designers and engineers couldn’t get working to their satisfaction — at least not in time for the headset’s launch date. Since it’s entirely a software feature, it’s quite possible it could return in a future visionOS update.

While there are numerous apps planned for the Vision Pro, not all of those will be available at launch either, as developers continue to work out the details. However, key apps like Disney+ and Max should be on board at launch — or soon after — and Apple has already shared how the Disney+ app will include its own set of “four iconic environments with vivid details.”

This suggests that developers will be able to create their own immersive environments, although these will seemingly only operate within those apps.

Apple’s Vision Pro will go up for preorder in the US this Friday, January 19, at 5:00 a.m. PT and arrive in stores on February 2. Customers who want to check one out can also visit a store for an in-person demo starting that same day.