Following the release of the visionOS 2.3 developer beta on Monday, we now have evidence that Apple is already working on the next major versions of the Apple Vision Pro operating system.
is the operating system for the Apple Vision Pro. The device is Apple's first attempt at a virtual reality headset, with the company's CEO Tim Cook calling it an "early adopter product." Following the visionOS 1.0 release, visionOS 2 became available to the general public on September 16, 2024.
The latest publicly available build of the Apple Vision Pro operating system is the visionOS 2.3 developer beta. Internally, however, Apple is already developing visionOS 3, the next major software update for its headset.
As discovered by AppleInsider, the company accidentally included a reference to the unreleased operating system in the documentation for a sample project, available on the Apple website. Another sample project referenced visionOS 2.4, which is expected to debut in 2025. In both cases, the platform target referenced unreleased operating system versions rather than the expected visionOS 2.2.
There are currently no details about the contents or features of either unreleased operating system, though various bug fixes and quality-of-life improvements will almost certainly be included. The Apple Vision Pro notably lacks support for Apple Intelligence features, despite the device featuring the Apple M2 chip.
On iPad and Mac devices with the same Apple Silicon system-on-chip, Apple Intelligence powers a wide variety of generative AI features. This includes Writing Tools, Genmoji, Image Playground, and more, which are all available on iOS 18.2 and iPadOS 18.2, as well as macOS Sequoia. It remains to be seen whether visionOS 3.0 will introduce any Apple Intelligence features to the existing Apple Vision Pro headset.
Of course, it is obvious that Apple has been working on visionOS 3.0 and other future versions of the operating system. This slip-up is just the first indication of the future version numbers from Apple.