References to “realityOS” Spotted in Apple Code

Image by Ady Setiawan from Pixabay

10 FEBRUARY 2022 - Worried that Apple has forgotten the whole augmented reality/virtual reality thing? Worried that the world at large has forgotten? Fear not. A number of sites, including Apple Insider, ran stories Wednesday about “realityOS.” 

Sounds like a character from a cyberpunk novel. Is actually (apparently) what Apple will call the operating system for AR/VR/MR/XR environs. According to a piece from MacRumors, new references to realityOS were “found in App Store upload logs and Apple open source code [Wednesday] morning.” The Apple Insider piece had developer Steve Troughton-Smith eyeing the code. In a post on Twitter, he said, “This at least confirms it 1) has its own OS & binaries, and 2) has a realityOS Simulator.”  

When will those of us who don’t speak code see something we can understand? Apple is, of course, saying nothing officially. Current thinking is it’ll be the better part of a year, though. Apple Insider says:

When references to "rOS" were first found [a little over four years ago], it was expected that Apple could introduce an Apple AR headset by 2020. More recently, late 2022 has been predicted, but even that is likely to slip back as Apple is reportedly finding hardware and software snags.