Back when the Meta Quest 3 launched there was one mixed reality feature I was most excited to try: Augments. Over a year and a half later, Augments still haven’t arrived, but the Apple Vision Pro is swooping in to finally live up to Meta’s mixed reality promise.
Meta’s Augments were supposed to be persistent virtual decorations that you could place in your real-world room, which you could see while using your Meta Quest 3 for mixed reality.
Some were just meant to be pretty – perhaps a trophy you won in a game or a decoration you liked the look of – while others were also functional such as a clock or a portal you can walk through to quickly boot up one of your favorite apps.
Despite promising back in September 2023 at Meta Connect 2023 that Augments would be coming in the not-too-distant future they still haven’t arrived. About a year ago Meta’s CTO Andrew Bosworth revealed on Instagram that back in January 2024 Meta had decided Augments weren’t “good enough,” and so the team had gone “back to the drawing board.”
Bosworth didn’t give us any release schedule for Augments, and a year on from the last time Meta discussed them they’re still yet to materialize.
Apple just showcased its next generation of software at WWDC 2025 including visionOS 26, and it announced spatial widgets: basically Augments for the Apple Vision Pro.
In its presentation it showed us clips of users decorating their real world space with elaborate virtual clocks, customized calendars, and their favorite spatial photos. And every time a user reenters mixed reality in their Vision Pro headset those widgets will be waiting for them exactly where they left them.
As mixed reality and augmented reality start to become the dominant form of XR the idea of decorative and functional virtual elements make a lot of sense – especially persistent decorations which you can always find where you place them just like real-world decorations.
More than making sense, it feels like they’ll certainly be part of the future.
That’s the case even for something as simple as a calendar (see the image at the top of this story). Physically calendars on your wall make it so much easier to track upcoming events, but it can be a pain to update them. Apple’s virtual calendar provides the best of both the digital and physical worlds – and the same is true of spatial photo frames, and other widgets.
I feel there’s a good chance that Meta’s Augments will be dormant for a while longer – perhaps until its AR glasses proper (the consumer Meta Orion AR glasses) launch. But Apple’s widget announcement has only reaffirmed that these sorts of features look (and are) awesome, and I’m still hoping Augments are coming sooner rather than later.
Perhaps this visionOS 26 update will light a fire under Meta and make that dream come true sooner rather than later.