You can now shoot spatial photos with your iPhone, but there’s a catch

Ryan
Haines
/
Android
Authority

TL;DR

iOS
18.1
beta
4
allows
iPhone
15
Pro
users
to
shoot
spatial
photos,
which
they
can
view
using
an
Apple
Vision
Pro.
The
feature
relies
on
the
vertical
alignment
of
the
rear
camera
lenses
and
will
work
with
all
iPhone
16
models.
The
latest
iOS
18.1
beta
also
includes
the
software
additions
Apple
first
introduced
with
the
iOS
18
Release
Candidate.

Last
year,
Apple
introduced
spatial
video
recording
on
the

iPhone
15
Pro
and
15
Pro
Max,
allowing
users
to
shoot
immersive
clips
they
can
watch
on
their
Vision
Pro
headsets.
With
iOS
18.1
beta
4,
the
company
is
now
expanding
spatial
capture
support
to
include
images,
too.
While
the
Vision
Pro
can
already
display
regular
shots
in
3D,
using
the
dedicated
spatial
photo
mode
should
output
better
results.

iOS
18.1
beta
4
includes
a
new
Spatial
Mode
tab
in
the
built-in
Camera
app.
Visiting
it
reveals
a
toggle
that
allows
users
to
switch
between
spatial
photo
and
spatial
video
capture.
It’s
worth
noting
that
to
use
Spatial
Mode,
you
have
to
hold
your
compatible
iPhone
in
landscape
orientation.
This
enables
the
rear
lenses
to
capture
the
necessary
depth
data
to
produce
spatial
media.

Since
the
latest
non-Pro
iPhone
models
have
switched
from
diagonal
to
vertically
aligned
rear
lenses,
the

iPhone
16
and
16
Plus
will
also
be
able
to
shoot
spatial
photos
and
videos.
This
should
further
popularize
the
feature
among
the
few
Apple
Vision
Pro
users.

Beyond
support
for
spatial
photo
shooting,
iOS
18.1
beta
4
includes
the
changes
Apple
first
offered
through
the

iOS
18
Release
Candidate.
These
include
support
for
pausing
video
recording
and
the
new
watchOS
11
faces
revealed
during
the
iPhone
16
event.

iOS
18.1
will
become
available
to
all
users
next
month.
Some
of
its
notable
changes
include
phone
call
recording
and
transcribing,
along
with
the
first
batch
of
Apple
Intelligence
features.