What Are Spatial Photos? iPhone, Vision Pro and How to Make Them

Short answer: a spatial photo is a 3D photo that holds two slightly different pictures of the same moment, one for each eye. In Apple Vision Pro it looks like a real place with depth, not a flat print. You can take spatial photos with recent iPhones and with Vision Pro, or make them from the ordinary photos you already have with an app like Spatial Media Toolkit.

What a spatial photo is

Your eyes sit a few centimetres apart, so each sees the world from a slightly different angle, and your brain turns the difference into depth. A spatial photo copies that: it stores a left-eye and a right-eye image in one file (a stereo HEIC), with information that tells Apple devices how to show them. A headset sends each image to the matching eye, and the photo appears in 3D.

On a regular screen, like an iPhone or Mac, a spatial photo shows as a normal photo. The depth comes back the moment you open it on Vision Pro.

How to take spatial photos

• iPhone: models with a Spatial mode in the Camera app (iPhone 15 Pro and later Pro models, and the iPhone 16 and later models with two rear cameras) can take spatial photos and videos. Hold the phone sideways so its two lenses sit side by side like your eyes.
• Apple Vision Pro: the headset's own cameras take spatial photos and videos.

Spatial photography works best with a subject a metre or two away and some distance behind it. Very distant views, like a skyline, have little depth to show.

How to make spatial photos from old photos

You don't need a spatial camera. A 2D photo can be turned into a spatial photo by estimating how far away everything in it is, then building the second eye's view from that depth. Spatial Media Toolkit does this on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Vision Pro, on your device, and saves the result straight to Photos, where it syncs to Vision Pro with iCloud Photos like any other picture. Step by step: how to convert a photo to a spatial photo.

The same works for whole albums: add many photos at once and convert them as a batch. Videos too, as spatial videos.

How to view spatial photos

• Apple Vision Pro: open the Photos app; spatial photos play in 3D. On Vision Pro, Spatial Media Toolkit's Gallery also shows your albums and Files in 3D, turning 2D photos spatial as you open them.
• Meta Quest and other headsets: convert the spatial photo to side-by-side (SBS) 3D, copy it to the headset and open it in a viewer with a side-by-side mode. Spatial Media Toolkit converts spatial photos to side-by-side too.
• Without a headset: a red-cyan anaglyph image works with cheap 3D glasses, and a wiggle video (a short looping animation) shows the depth on any screen.

Spatial photo vs spatial scene

iOS 26 added Spatial Scene to the iPhone Photos app. It makes any photo move with depth as you tilt the phone, but it's a way of showing a photo, not a 3D file. A spatial photo is a file with two real eye views that you can keep, share and open on Vision Pro and, as side-by-side, on other headsets.

FAQ

What is a spatial photo on iPhone?

A photo taken in the Camera app's Spatial mode, or converted from a 2D photo, that holds a separate image for each eye. It looks normal on the iPhone and shows in 3D on Apple Vision Pro.

Which iPhones can take spatial photos?

iPhone models with a Spatial mode in the Camera app: iPhone 15 Pro and later Pro models, and the iPhone 16 and later models with two rear cameras. Any iPhone running iOS 18 or later can make spatial photos from existing pictures with Spatial Media Toolkit.

Can I turn an old photo into a spatial photo?

Yes. Spatial Media Toolkit estimates depth in the photo and builds the second view, on your iPhone, iPad, Mac or Vision Pro. See the photo guide.

Can I see spatial photos without Vision Pro?

Yes, in other ways: as side-by-side 3D in a headset like Meta Quest, as a red-cyan anaglyph with 3D glasses, or as a wiggle video on any screen.

Is a spatial photo the same as a Live Photo?

No. A Live Photo adds a few seconds of motion and sound. A spatial photo adds depth, with one image for each eye.

Try it

Download Spatial Media Toolkit on the App Store and turn a photo you love into a spatial photo.