Apple’s ‘creepy’ Vision Pro avatars are getting a makeover — take a look

• Apple released a beta visionOS 1.1 update for Vision Pro developers on Tuesday.
• The Vision Pro’s Persona avatar feature got a makeover as part of the update, users shared.
• Earlier versions of the Personas were described as off-putting by reviewers.

The latest yet-to-be-released Apple Vision Pro avatars are already looking more like actual people.

The tech giant released a beta update of visionOS 1.1 for developers on Tuesday, and it offered an early look at improved avatars, or “Personas” as Apple calls them, for Vision Pro users.

Apple’s Personas feature is itself labeled as a beta feature for now, which means the company is still tinkering with that specific feature. Separately, Apple releases beta versions of its wider software for its various devices, such as iOS for iPhones and visionOS for the Vision Pro, to developers ahead of a wider release (that’s the notification you eventually get under your device’s “Settings” asking you to update).

Those testing out the Vision Pro update before an expected public release posted to X about their Persona makeover. Although they’ve reported having to re-scan their faces, the result is more realistic than the avatars made with the previous version of the Vision Pro software.

YouTuber Quinn Nelson shared before-and-after photos of his Persona after making a new one with the visionOS 1.1 update.

“Is it still uncanny and creepy? Yeah, but I don’t look like Stalin anymore,” Nelson wrote on X.

The updated version of Nelson’s persona has more human-like features and a more realistic complexion compared to his previous avatar. The “Stalin” persona in Nelson’s before pictures was flatter with less detail.

Early reviewers of the Vision Pro shared similar concerns about the looks of Persona prior to the developer update. The Verge’s Nilay Patel described the Personas that launched with the headset as “deeply weird and extremely uncanny.”

The Wall Street Journal’s Joanna Stern shared her own smudgy avatar to X.

And, my Vision Pro avatar certainly didn’t look like it was accurately modeled after my 24-year-old face.

Vision Pro owners can use their Personas on FaceTime calls while wearing the headset, but you’ll need a developer Apple profile if you want early access to the update.

If not, your friends will have to talk to a slightly more uncanny animated version of you — at least until Apple pushes out a wider update.