How to record spatial video on your iPhone for mind-blowing 3D memories

Your iPhone can record 3D spatial video and photos, effectively future-proofing the images you capture. And the results are stunning.

The stereoscopic 3D video and photos captured with the iPhone can be viewed on an Apple Vision Pro headset as an immersive way to relive memories.

Here’s how it works.

How to record 3D spatial video on iPhone

Watching spatial video on an Apple Vision Pro is one of the headset’s most magical experiences. 

Those who have watched personal videos they’ve recorded using the headset offer glowing reviews of spatial video. It “almost brought me to tears,” wrote Raymond Wong at Inverse, adding that “to see them replayed with a sense of presence really tugged at my heartstrings.”

But you don’t need a pricey Vision Pro to record spatial videos and photos. You just need an iPhone 15 Pro or an iPhone 16 or later (although it doesn’t work on iPhone 16e). The regular and ultrawide cameras on these models are positioned side by side, which is necessary for capturing two camera angles of the same scene — so-called “stereoscopic” video. Other iPhones have these cameras arranged diagonally, which wouldn’t work as well.

Table of contents: How to record 3D spatial video on iPhone

1. Open the Camera app and select Spatial Mode
2. Switch between Spatial Photos and Spatial Videos
3. Hold the phone horizontally
4. Record 3D video
5. Beware: Spatial video can eat up storage
6. Rewatch spatial video on all your devices

1. Open the Camera app and select Spatial Mode

To get started capturing spatial video on your iPhone, open the Camera app. (This only works with Apple’s Camera app, not with Snapchat, TikTok or any others.) Swipe left on the Video/Photo picker to select Spatial mode.

2. Switch between Spatial Photos and Spatial Videos

In Spatial Mode, you can take 3D pictures or record 3D videos. Tap the Spatial Mode Toggle (with the icon of a photo or video camera) in the corner to switch between photo and video.

In Photo mode, the capture button will be white. In Video mode, the capture button will be red. 

3. Hold your iPhone horizontally

If you aren’t already, you’ll be prompted to hold your phone horizontally. Again, with how the two cameras are arranged, the left-right orientation mimics how humans see 3D images.

You also need to be in a very bright room. Otherwise, you’ll see a warning message, “More light recommended.”

4. Record 3D Video

Ready to start capturing a spatial video on your iPhone? Just hit the red Record button to start recording. Press it again to stop recording when you’re done, just as you would with any other video. Apple offers a few tips for making the best spatial videos:

• Hold the camera steady and level.
• Keep the subjects and the focus around 3 to 8 feet from the camera for the best depth effect.
• Make sure the room has even, bright lighting. Your phone will have a hard time processing the effect in low light or scenes with a lot of harsh shadows.

These are good tips for any kind of filming, too. 

5. Note: 3D spatial video can eat up storage

Spatial video is captured at 1080p at 30fps, and one minute of 3D video will chew up about 130MB of storage. This is twice the amount of storage space as a regular video, which is understandable since it’s recording two videos in one. However, a minute of 1080p spatial video is still less than a minute of 4K video, and much less than 4K video at 60fps.

Nonetheless, if you plan to record a lot of spatial video, you’re likely going to want to hook your iPhone up to an external USB drive. Newer iPhones make it easy with their USB-C ports.

However, make sure whatever drive or SSD you use is fast enough. Luckily, there’s a free iPhone app from OWC that tests external drives or SSDs to see if they are fast enough for video recording.

In addition, spatial video will sync to all your devices if you have iCloud Photos turned on, so keep an eye on your iCloud storage.

6. Rewatch on all your devices

At $3,499, the Vision Pro headset is rather expensive, but you can still watch spatial videos as ordinary, 2D videos on all your devices. You can watch them on an iPhone, Mac, iPad or Apple TV. And you can share them with an Android phone or Windows computer. Finally, you can edit them in iMovie, Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere — just like any other video.

In the future, when you play back your spatial videos or look at your spatial photos on a Vision Pro headset (or maybe even a Meta Quest), you’ll be able to relive those moments in full 3D.

So record in 3D now, and your precious memories might one day bring a tear to your eye.

More camera and photo tips

• Photographic Styles built into your iPhone’s camera can give your pictures a radically different aesthetic.
• The new Camera Control button on the iPhone 16 lineup opens the Camera app, takes pictures and adjusts camera settings on the fly. It offers a quick shortcut to using one of the most popular and important iPhone features.
• Take 48-megapixel photos that capture eagle-eye details at incredibly high resolution, shooting in Apple’s ProRAW format, on an iPhone 14 Pro and later Pro models.
• Three tips to take better pictures and upgrade your photography skills.
• Photograph fireworks with these special tips and achieve great results. Just pointing and shooting with no prior planning can lead to blurry, unexciting fireworks photos.

We originally published this post on how to record 3D Spatial Video on iPhone on December 22, 2023. We updated the information on November 7, 2025.

D. Griffin Jones

D. Griffin Jones is a writer, podcaster and video producer for Cult of Mac. Griffin has been a passionate computer enthusiast since 2002, when he got his first PC — but since getting a Mac in 2008, he hasn’t turned back. His skills in graphic and web design, along with video and podcast editing, are self-taught over 20+ years. Griffin has a bachelor’s degree in computer science and has written several (unpublished) apps for Mac and iOS. His collection of old computers is made up of 40+ desktops, laptops, PDAs and devices, dating back to the early ’80s. He brings all of these creative and technical skills, along with a deep knowledge of Apple history, into his work for Cult of Mac.