In the Vision Pro, having the time of my life with a bunch of friends.

The inside of an Apple Vision Pro is a lonely place to be. My partner and I can’t watch movies together. It’s hard to describe what the world is like in there to curious friends. Even if I stand next to you, even if there is a ghostly projection of my eyes on the front screen, there is a barrier between you and me.

Unless you also have a Vision Pro headset and have Space People enabled.

Apple debuted Spatial Personas last week. Release your weird digital avatar from within the FaceTime window and into any SharePlay-enabled app, as well as into your virtual space. Call me intrigued. Solitude was a Vision Pro scam that reviewer after reviewer pointed out. Would that help? I called our weekend editor, Wes Davis, who also owns a Vision Pro, to find out.

I am deeply familiar with Wes Persona and his immobile virtual mustache. Still, it was unsettling to have a ghostly Wes in my office hanging around. Like a horror movie, sometimes I wouldn’t look at Wesona and then go about my business. Then I should pinch Wesona and put him on the other side of my office. He wasn’t even all himself. People only project their heads, necks, a bit of shoulders and hands. There is no body, legs or arms. This can cause hands to appear in strange places. And when a persona turns around, sometimes it disappears because Personas don’t capture the back of your head. Sometimes you grow and shrink like Ant-Man. At these times, it reinforces the idea that your friend isn’t really there.

As strange as it sounds, space people are awesome. I usually just sit on the Vision Pro, but having the Spatial Personas encouraged me to move around more, especially when I was doodling and doodling on Freeform. (Though I wish I had some kind of pencil to draw with. The various Kirbys I drew were lumps.) We played a game of virtual chess in the Game Room, and I felt a bit like a war general in a sci-fi movie, pacing around a table surveying my troop locations, thoughtfully stroking my non-existent beard. Sure, I led my troops to crushing defeat in seven minutes, but the atmosphere was there.

They were fun experiences, but also witty. There are plenty of troubleshooting options, especially if the eye tracking is acting up or you start to feel the weight of the headset unexpectedly. We already share presentations and collaborative software through Zoom. During the height of covid-19, we all found creative ways to connect remotely without the need for $3,500 headsets. I was one of those people he got really a Animal crossing, visiting friends’ islands for that price of 600 turnips, shouting and kicking as we gossip via voice chat. This wasn’t as technologically impressive as Wesona’s ghostly hand checkmating my king, but it went a long way to making me feel less alone.

Using Spatial Personas with Apple Music was more fun. I did my best to convert Wes to K-pop with Stray Kids’ excellent music videos Back Door, Thunderous, and Case 143. He remained grossly unmoved. We turned to Beyoncé Cowboy Carter album We both agreed, it was a great album, but without any visuals, it was weird to sit there like ghosts and nod. Collaborating with music in Vision Pro, at least for our work as writers, is also strange. If I’m writing a draft on my virtual Mac screen, why would I want to look and see Wesona clicking on her separate draft?

But there were a few moments where I glimpsed what Apple thinks Spatial Personas could be, namely when we saw some scenes of tucked away on the Wes Plex server and The Last Jedi on Apple TV. (What better movie to watch than one where Rey and Kylo Ren are essentially Spatial Persona FaceTiming each other?) This felt closer to plopping down on your friends couch and watching a movie together where, if a sickness scene happens, you can turn around. , look at your bud and say: Did you just see that?! In our case, we entered into a deep discussion about the War of the galaxies sequel trilogy and everything wrong with it. In the end, I wished my friends on the other side of the world who I only see once every few years if I’m lucky also had Vision Pros.

When the Vision Pro works, it works. But when it doesn’t, when you can see the seams, it can leave you feeling lonelier than before you strapped on the headphones. What you don’t see are all the awkward pauses when Wes and I had to troubleshoot and figure out why something wasn’t working, things that are harder when you have a headset, and for whatever reason, that day, the Vision Pro had eye problems Tracking. (Wes doesn’t have nearly as much trouble with eye tracking, but I have to recalibrate mine every few sessions.)

Then there’s the hurdle of being able to watch things together. Apple spokesman Zach Kahn confirmed that for subscriber-only content, like Apple Originals on Apple TV Plus, you’ll both need to have a subscription. (Unless you share a subscription using Family Sharing). You’re also limited to apps that support SharePlay. It would be better if you could put on your headphones, choose any app and go.

So did Spatial Personas make the Vision Pro less lonely? yes and no Testing Spatial Personas is the most fun I’ve had on headphones so far. On the other hand, Wes is still the only person I know who uses his Vision Pro regularly. I don’t feel comfortable asking my friends to pay $3,500 to hang out with me virtually when that money could buy a round trip plane ticket to in reality visit me Some of this will hopefully improve over time. But for now, I’m still pretty much alone here.