OpenXR is an open, royalty-free customary which supplies a single, unified interface for creating VR and AR purposes. Most XR platforms assist it—excluding Apple, which makes use of its personal APIs for Imaginative and prescient Professional. Whereas that hasn’t modified, OpenXR appears to have taken a web page out of Apple’s playbook with a brand new multitasking spatial app framework.
The Khronos Group, which leads growth on OpenXR, introduced it’s set to roll out a set of extensions quickly that embrace new “spatial containers.” Spatial containers are system-managed areas the place apps can show XR content material, just like how conventional apps draw 2D content material inside home windows on a desktop.
As seen within the quick clip beneath, this can basically enable for apps to change between a “bounded” mode for multitasking and an “immersive” mode that takes up the total display, The Khronos Group says.
It’s admittedly similar to how visionOS handles multitasking by way of its Shared House operate, which is principally a spatial desktop that enables a number of 3D purposes to dwell side-by-side and be moved round by the person. Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional has had this function since launch in 2024.
This is available in distinction to how multitasking works on Quest right now, whereby just one spatial app can run at a time, albeit alongside system-level stuff, such because the dashboard, browser, and different multitasked 2D home windows.
The Khronos Group says the brand new extensions have been ratified and revealed, with implementations anticipated to start rolling out throughout the OpenXR ecosystem throughout 2026.
Granted, its launch doesn’t imply all present headsets will instantly assist it, though it’s a great wager we’ll start seeing implementations quickly from the cadre of OpenXR-supported headsets, which up to now embrace Meta Quest, SteamVR-compatible PC VR headsets and Steam Body, Android XR-based headsets, Varjo, Magic Leap, and XREAL glasses.
You may take a look at the total listing right here, which after all doesn’t embrace Apple.
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