What Is Spatial Video? How It Works and How to Make Your Own
Oct 21, 2026
Short answer: spatial video is Apple's 3D video format. Each file holds two views of the same scene, one for each eye, so it plays with real depth on Apple Vision Pro. Newer iPhones can record it, and apps like Spatial Media Toolkit can create it from ordinary 2D videos.
How spatial video works
Your eyes see the world from two slightly different positions, and your brain turns that difference into depth. Spatial video copies the trick: it records or creates a left-eye and a right-eye view and plays each to the matching eye.
Apple stores both views in one file using MV-HEVC (multiview HEVC). It compresses the second view by reusing what it shares with the first, so a spatial video is much smaller than two separate videos. The file also carries metadata that tells the player how to show it in 3D. On a device that can't show 3D, it simply plays as a normal 2D video.
How spatial video is recorded
iPhone 15 Pro and later models record spatial video with two of their rear cameras held in landscape, capturing two viewpoints at once. Apple Vision Pro can record it too. Apple's iPhone spatial video is 1080p at 30 frames per second.
Where you can watch it
Apple Vision Pro: open it in the Photos app and it plays in 3D.
Meta Quest and other headsets: most don't read Apple's format directly. Convert it to side-by-side (SBS) first. See our Quest guide.
Phones, computers and TVs: it plays in 2D.
Making spatial video from videos you already have
Most of your videos were shot with one lens, so they only have one view. An app can create the second view: it estimates how far away everything in each frame is, then builds the two eye images from that.
Spatial Media Toolkit does this on your iPhone, iPad, Mac or Vision Pro. Set the output to Apple Spatial and it writes a real MV-HEVC spatial video that the Photos app on Vision Pro recognizes. The step-by-step is in our 2D to 3D video converter guide, and the same works for pictures: how to convert a photo to a spatial photo.
Spatial video vs other 3D formats
Side-by-side (SBS): both views next to each other in one wide frame. Widely supported by VR players.
Top-and-bottom: the views stacked vertically. Common in older 3D movies.
Spatial (MV-HEVC): both views stored as layers of one video. Apple's format.
360° and VR180: wrap around you instead of appearing as a screen. Spatial video is a 3D window in front of you, not a 360° scene.
Spatial Media Toolkit converts between spatial, side-by-side, half side-by-side and top-and-bottom inputs, and outputs spatial, side-by-side or red-cyan anaglyph.
FAQ
Is spatial video the same as 3D video?
It's a kind of 3D video. "Spatial video" is Apple's name for 3D video in the MV-HEVC format.
Do I need a Vision Pro to watch spatial video?
To see it in 3D, you need a headset. Vision Pro plays spatial video directly; other headsets need a side-by-side copy.
Can I turn old videos into spatial video?
Yes. A 2D to 3D converter creates the second view with AI. Converting and previewing in Spatial Media Toolkit are free; saving converted videos needs Pro.
What's a spatial photo?
The same idea for a still image: a HEIC file holding a left and right view.
Try it
Download Spatial Media Toolkit on the App Store and turn a favourite video into spatial video.
