Apple To Include Cobrowsing In The Vision Pro

As cobrowsing, or collaborative browsing, becomes more and more popular, it seems like Apple has decided to feature it in their headset. We spoke to two independent visionOS developers who confirmed that Safari is likely to get cobrowsing capabilities.

Why would cobrowsing be a killer feature on visionOS?

Assuming the rumors are true, a couple of questions come to mind: what will it look like and why does this matter? Both cobrowsing and VR have been around for a while, but cobrowsing has never been applied in this context before and the research is still nascent.  

The most obvious use case would be something like remote collaboration in virtual environments. Picture this: coworkers thousands of miles apart working together in virtual offices. 

Want to walk over to a colleague’s desk for a chat and rearrange the objects they’ve placed there? They may be mildly put out by that, but the good news is that virtual cobrowsing would make it possible! Want to have a brainstorming session with other members of your team? Simply walk your avatars over to the whiteboard conveniently placed in the corner and start scribbling together. 

And the applications of VR cobrowsing don’t stop there. There's collaborative research: place two scientists in a virtual environment where they can poke around 3D models of intricate structures together, and you're bound to end up with something impressively science-y and important. And let's not overlook customer support—picture conducting virtual product tours within your app, letting users tinker with elements right alongside you. Onboarding could not get any more personal than this. VR cobrowsing can even be used in real estate to create next-level virtual property tours. 

Now, you may be asking: is the next frontier in virtual collaboration a good idea given that the Apple Vision Pro has already been accused of “making people walk around their homes with these dystopian-looking headsets on”? 

The jury’s still out, but there is no denying that, if used correctly, VR cobrowsing could have enormous benefits when it comes to productivity, learning, research, and accessibility.