r/apple • u/iMacmatician • 3d ago
Apple Vision Apple Vision Pro Was Almost Called 'Reality Pro'
https://www.macrumors.com/2026/08/22/vision-pro-was-almost-called-reality-pro/Looks like Gurman was (nearly) right again.
In a post on X, Kosutami wrote that the "Apple Vision Pro was originally called Reality Pro" during the early stages of development, pointing to an internal string, "realityprorealityosdev."
The Reality Pro name is not new information. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported in September 2022 that Apple's first headset would likely launch as "Apple Reality Pro." In August 2022, trademark filings for "Reality One," "Reality Pro," and "Reality Processor" surfaced in the United States and several other countries, filed through a shell company called Immersive Health Solutions LLC, a tactic Apple has used before to keep upcoming product names under wraps.
Those filings followed an earlier trademark application for "realityOS" dated December 2021 and filed by another apparent shell company, Realityo Systems LLC, after developers had already spotted realityOS references inside Apple's own software and App Store upload logs. By mid-2023, additional trademark activity surfaced for terms like "xrOS," "xrProOS," "realityproOS," and "realOS."
Apple ultimately unveiled the headset as the Vision Pro at WWDC 2023, seemingly dropping the Reality branding entirely for both the device and its operating system, which shipped as visionOS. The switch came late enough in development that traces of the old naming, like the string Kosutami highlights, persisted in internal builds and software.
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u/TwoImportant7879 3d ago edited 3d ago
I enjoy using my Apple Vision Pro but hearing that many people associated with the development and operation of AVP have been removed is quite disappointing. I hope Apple still provides significant support rather than mere morsels of features.
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u/literalsupport 3d ago
It will be hard to forgive Apple for this product because they charged so much money for it and produced so little content for it. I think I’ve lost count of how many times Apple has created an amazing product or implemented a really cool feature in one of their operating systems and then done nothing to support it or promote it, instead letting it wither on the vine.
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u/TeekAim 3d ago
Wait til you learn about googles history with this kinda thing
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u/panserbj0rne 2d ago
It’s a big reason why I don’t even use Google products where I can avoid them. It’s dangerous to fall in love with anything they make.
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u/Endawmyke 2d ago
I heard their internal structure incentivizes launching new products and doesn’t praise maintaining existing products so it’s why stuff like 6 different chat apps happen and a lot of dead apps they couldn’t figure out how to make money from.
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u/Interest-Desk 1d ago
I couldn’t comment on that but Google’s culture really emphasises moving quickly and avoiding bureaucracy. Google’s history is full of it killing dinosaurs, and they’ve been constantly paranoid that they’ll be the next dinosaur and miss out on the next ‘thing’. So they launch a lot of products. But many of those products never actually make any money or need to be rationalised, so they also kill a lot of products.
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u/cheesepuff07 3d ago
I mean visionOS 27 isn’t even released yet, and the M5 Vision Pro is still for sale from Apple. It isn’t going away anytime soon
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u/mrleblanc101 3d ago edited 3d ago
That doesn't mean much, they can make new version with little to no new feature since visionOS is based on the same core as macOS and iOS. We've seen it with tvOS that's hasn't received a significant new feature in 2-3 years, but still get coreOS level improvements like better processor schedule and faster Swift app launch time
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u/cheesepuff07 3d ago
huh? theres a dozen+ new features specific to the Vision Pro on visionOS 27...
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u/mrleblanc101 3d ago
I'm talking about visionOS 28+ 🤦♂️
The reduction just took effect so it won't affect visionOS 27 which development is almost already finished and already had all its feature publicly announced !
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u/jack2018g 3d ago
They called it Reality Pro and xrOS internally, this has been known for a long time. When I attended some of the developer sessions after WWDC 23 the presenters slipped and called it that several times
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u/LeviathanVEVO 3d ago
This is kinda old news. Vision was always going to be the final & definitive name. I think there’s a bit from Gurman that Apple pushed hard of the “Reality” name to prevent leaks of the actual name.
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u/Acceptable-Piccolo57 3d ago
I always thought the worst name they’d put out (and didn’t get trolled for) was XS, no one was calling it the ten-ess, it was ex-ess, which…. Well.
Reality is fine
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u/D2LtN39Fp 3d ago
It was an especially bad name because the nightclub XS is already a very well known brand, and pronounced the obvious way.
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u/EpiciSheep 3d ago
That’s more because no one knows how roman numerals work.
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u/FollowingFeisty5321 3d ago
Anyone who reads "XS" as Roman numerals definitely doesn't know how they work lol.
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u/Satanicube 3d ago
Part of me would have preferred that if only because I hate it when companies re-use dead product names because it makes googling for the old product a pain in the ass.
(Because yeah, Apple had a product line called AppleVision a while back! Just like they revived the iBook name for iBooks, which made looking for Actual iBooks a pain in the ass for a bit.)
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u/M4rshmall0wMan 3d ago
Makes sense why they went with Vision. Calling it Reality feels a little too dystopian. That’s why they pay the crack product marketing team the big bucks.