Apple’s AR/VR Headset May Feature Apps for Health and Wellness, Productivity, Gaming and More

In a bid to make its mixed-reality headset more appealing to users, Apple is reportedly working on innovative apps for the AR/VR headset.

Apple's upcoming headset will reportedly launch on June 5 this year, so engineers at the company are apparently working day and night to introduce apps that will strike a chord with its users.

The challenge for Apple is that mixed-reality headsets are still a very alien piece of technology for most people. Hence to make it viable to customers, they need to market it in a way that users can deem it useful, and the only way out is to make apps that users will appreciate.

The headset is said to include a mix of optimized versions of older apps such as the Safari web browser, Apple's calendars, contacts, files, home control, mail, maps, messaging, notes, photos, reminders, music, news, stocks, and weather apps, as well as few newer ones aimed at providing a rich, immersive 3D-experience.

There's reportedly a version of Apple Books, which will allow users to read in virtual reality. Then apparently, there's also a camera app that users can use to take pictures using the headset.

For health and wellness, the company is also said to be working on a meditation app that will stimulate calming graphics, sounds, and voice-overs to help users meditate in virtual reality. Users will also be able to exercise while watching an instructor in virtual reality.

An updated version of its Freeform collaboration app is also said to be in the works. The app was released last year and gained quite a bit of popularity as a virtual whiteboard collaboration tool.

Users will also apparently be able to FaceTime using augmented reality, which will seem like speaking to a 3D version of their contact in virtual space.

Then, there will also be an immersive video, which will allow users to experience sports and other videos in an immersive 3D way. So, users can either watch live matches with the feel of being in a stadium or watch the night sky as though seeing it in real-time. Apple reportedly acquired NextVR in 2020 for working on the same.

Apple also wants to include productivity apps in the headset. So, it will include support for its word processor Pages, spreadsheet app Numbers, Keynote slide app, and movie and video production apps iMovie and GarageBand.

To have a seamless integration of iOS apps across all its gadgets, Apple has reportedly based the headset's operating system, xrOS on the iOS platform. So users will be able to run the same apps across iPhones, Macs, and iPads.

Apple has realized that generating apps that serve users is key to getting them to adopt the technology, as seen with the iPhone. While it's a long way off to even expect the headset to receive the kind of adulation, the iPhone does, the company is hoping that it's on the right track at least.

There've also been rumors that one of the reasons for Apple to launch the headset at the Worldwide Developers Conference is to get the attention of app creators who may want to be a part of this upcoming technology.

The headset is said to be priced approximately at $3,000 (about ₹2,50,000) and will be available for sale a few months after launch, giving developers enough time to come up with new apps for the headset.

Source: Bloomberg