Apple Vision Pro is above and beyond other mixed reality headsets, but even with the highest quality passthrough camera tech to help you stay grounded in your real surroundings, there’s no way to escape the fact that donning one is a single-user experience. That changes starting today with the rollout of spatial Persona.

Yesterday, Apple invited me to try out a demo of spatial Persona — from the comfort of my own home — with several of its PR reps. And even with a few connection issues, it was a glimpse of how Vision Pro could bring people together to watch movies, play games, or collaborate on work.

Proper augmented reality is years, if not decades away. Not necessarily because we don’t have the software know-how or display technology to make it happen, but because it’s not possible to do it well or affordably in 2024.

That hasn't stopped companies from making real, functional AR their goal, but it does mean what’s been released isn’t exactly up to snuff. Microsoft's HoloLens, an augmented and mixed reality headset that aimed to realize a new kind of computing in the shadow of Windows 10 wasn't able to succeed. Because of limitations and more than one scandal, it's been stuck as an expensive enterprise tool for years, but that doesn't mean it wasn't important.

In the eight years since Microsoft released the HoloLens Development Edition, the idea for how a truly "spatial" computer should operate has been cemented and, despite all of its awkwardness, the HoloLens laid the groundwork for devices like the Vision Pro and whatever else comes after.