Apple wants to give third-party applications a better understanding of objects and the environment, but it will have its own way!
The Apple Vision Pro has enjoyed many successes, according to the opinions of first users and specialists, without even having explored its potential. However, this perception is not the same for developers, who see in Apple’s privacy restrictions, a significant limitation when launching its applications.
Apple makes no compromises when it comes to the strong privacy protections that characterize its ecosystem and in the case of Vision Pro is created so that developers do not have access to transmissions from the device’s camerassomething that in the past has harmed other similar devices such as Google Glass.
Apple is stricter in its privacy policies with the Vision Pro
According to former Apple employees cited in a report published by The Information, Apple has placed a lot of emphasis on privacy in Vision Pro, in part to prevent Vision Pro from becoming the next Google Glass:
Former Apple employees say Apple wants to avoid what happened with Google Glass, a wearable device that caused a huge outcry more than a decade ago because the presence of a camera on the product people who are uncomfortable with o thers.
According to the testimony of Kalani Helekunihi, an augmented reality developer who “creates apps for seniors and people with disabilities,” camera access restrictions prevented him from launching the app which provides “people with limited vision with a description of their environment and would act as a virtual cane warning them of approaching obstacles.”
Furthermore, Antony Vitillo, virtual reality and AR developer behind the fitness game HitMotion: Reloaded for Meta Platform’s Quest, considers camera access a barrier to providing alternatives for users to interact with real-world objectslike a punching bag.
To counteract this limitation, Apple could implement a text-based solution, but this has not been considered a priority.
Avi Bar-Zeev, an industry consultant who previously worked on AR products at Microsoft and Apple, said: Developers should learn to live with the limitations of AR device cameras.
For example, your apps may need to work with text descriptions rather than images and recordings of what those devices’ cameras see.
The report concludes by stating that team members who worked on Vision Pro stated that although Apple wants to give third-party applications a better understanding of objects and the environmentbut “it wasn’t a priority compared to all the other software features Apple had to put into the device.”
Although observations such as those cited by these developers will not be missed when developing in Vision Pro, For Apple, changing any of the policies that support its brand is not an option.