Apple opens VisionOS to third-party spatial widgets with new SDK 3.1

Design · 4 min read

Apple unveiled VisionOS SDK 3.1 today, introducing a new API set for persistent spatial widgets that can remain anchored across user sessions and different apps. The update targets designers and developers who want to keep contextual information — like calendars, notifications, or creative tool palettes — accessible without relaunching a full app.

The SDK includes layout constraints for real-world surfaces, automatic occlusion and hand-tracking refinements, and energy-saving heuristics to prevent widget overload on battery-powered headsets. Apple also added a zero-state template library for quick prototyping and guidelines aiming to reduce motion sickness with conservative parallax and depth transitions.

For UX teams, the change means rethinking multitasking in 3D: widgets can now act as lightweight companions rather than full app windows, but designers must balance persistence with cognitive load. Apple released sample projects and Figma templates to help teams adopt the spatial patterns quickly.