Apple VisionOS 2.1 adds AR widgets, Handoff for spatial apps, and profile-level privacy controls

Design · 4 min read

visionOS 2.1 introduces AR widgets that persist across apps and anchor to real-world surfaces, enabling lightweight glanceable content like timelines, contextual controls, and collaborative whiteboards. Widgets can now be authored with SwiftUI extensions and support dynamic placement based on surface recognition and user intent signals.

A new Handoff API lets users seamlessly continue spatial apps between iPhone, iPad, and Vision Pro, preserving spatial layout and interaction state. This is particularly useful for workflows that begin on a phone and expand into an immersive session. Apple also launched a developer preview of multi-user session syncing for shared AR content.

On the privacy side, Apple added profile-level permissions so users can grant spatial-scoped access for sensors and scene understanding only to specific app profiles. The OS includes clearer permission dialogs for persistent spatial data and a dashboard showing which apps accessed spatial meshes and camera feeds over time.