The regular iPhone 16 can record spatial 3D videos

The number of people with a 3D camera in their pocket will soon reach hundreds of millions, as all iPhone 16 models can take spatial photos and spatial videos.

“Spatial Video” is Apple’s term for stereoscopic 3D video in the Apple HEVC Stereo Video Profile format.

Currently, spatial video can only be recorded with the iPhone 15 Pro models and Apple Vision Pro itself, but all iPhone 16 models will be able to record it. It is now a standard feature of the iPhone.

Apple also announced that the iPhone 16 can take spatial photos. Previously, only Vision Pro could take spatial photos.

Only the iPhone 16 Pro models feature Spatial Audio Recording for spatial videos, so that when you watch the video, the sound sounds like it is coming from the source.

Spatial videos can be viewed natively in Apple Vision Pro or Pico 4 Ultra and with the Meta Horizon app you can easily upload them to your Meta account's cloud storage for viewing on your Quest headset.

If you have another VR headset, such as a native PC VR headset, you can use the iPhone app Spatialify to convert spatial videos into regular SBS 3D for viewing.

Platforms like YouTube don't yet natively support uploading spatial videos, but you can also use Spatialify's conversion feature for this.

Apple announces tools for immersive video and spatial videos

Apple and partners have announced tools that enable professional production of Spatial Video and Apple Immersive Video.

At its WWDC conference in June, Apple announced an upcoming update to Final Cut Pro that will support spatial video editing and add “immersive titles and effects.” Vimeo said it plans to natively support the format in the future and provide a visionOS app for viewing spatial video.