Apple's Clips App Adds Immersive AR Spaces Enabled With LiDAR Scanner

by

Apple today updated its Clips video creation app to version 3.1, introducing support for the LiDAR Scanner on the iPhone 12 Pro and the 2020 and 2021 iPad Pro models.

apple app clips
With the new AR Spaces feature, users can scan a room and then transform their space with immersive visual effects that map to the contours of the room.

With AR Spaces in Clips 3.1, users can easily scan a room and see a live preview of effects that bring dynamic lighting, falling objects, and immersive scenes to life. Using the rear camera on a supported iPhone or iPad, users will see effects appear on walls, floors, surfaces, furniture, and objects.

There are seven AR Spaces effects that are available with the update:

  • Prism: Ribbons of rainbow light scan the walls, floors, and objects in a room.
  • Confetti: Celebratory bursts of confetti fall and accumulate on flat surfaces.
  • Disco: Shining lights reflect off the disco ball that hangs from the ceiling of the space.
  • Dance Floor: Colorful tiles of light dance in patterns across the floor.
  • Sparkles: Golden sparkle emoji and white glitter fill the space.
  • Stardust: Magical trails of starlight encircle and follow a person in the video.
  • Hearts: Floating heart balloons bubble up within the space.

Clips has all of Apple's most advanced AR tools and is able to recognize people in the video, projecting an AR Space effect both in front of and behind the person, so the effects look like they're applied all around the space.

AR Spaces can be augmented with animated stickers, text labels, and emoji overlays, and the resulting videos can be recorded in all aspect ratios and transferred to social media sites.

Apple says that going forward, Clips will get monthly updates to introduce new filters, Live Titles, text, stickers, and posters "related to seasonal events and cultural trends." With the release of version 3.1, users can choose to opt in to notifications to get an alert when new content is available.

Tag: Clips

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro in Hand Feature Lowgo

iPhone 17 Pro Coming Soon With These 14 New Features

Friday July 4, 2025 1:05 pm PDT by
Apple's next-generation iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are just over two months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models. Latest Rumors These rumors surfaced in June and July:Apple logo repositioned: Apple's logo may have a lower position on the back of the iPhone 17 Pro models, compared to previous...
Read Full Article • 60 comments
Apple Watch Ultra Night Mode Screen

Apple Watch Ultra 3 Launching Later This Year With Two Key Upgrades

Wednesday July 2, 2025 1:13 pm PDT by
The long wait for an Apple Watch Ultra 3 appears to be nearly over, and it is rumored to feature both satellite connectivity and 5G support. Apple Watch Ultra's existing Night Mode In his latest Power On newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said that the Apple Watch Ultra 3 is on track to launch this year with "significant" new features, including satellite connectivity, which would let you...
Read Full Article • 96 comments
iPhone 17 Pro in Hand Feature Lowgo

iPhone 17 Pro Max Battery Capacity Leaked

Thursday July 3, 2025 5:40 am PDT by
The iPhone 17 Pro Max will feature the biggest ever battery in an iPhone, according to the Weibo leaker known as "Instant Digital." In a new post, the leaker listed the battery capacities of the iPhone 11 Pro Max through to the iPhone 16 Pro Max, and added that the iPhone 17 Pro Max will feature a battery capacity of 5,000mAh: iPhone 11 Pro Max: 3,969mAh iPhone 12 Pro Max: 3,687mAh...
Read Full Article • 114 comments
airpods pro 2

AirPods Pro 3 to Help Maintain Apple's Place in Earbud Market Amid Increasing Low-Cost Competition

Thursday July 3, 2025 7:25 am PDT by
Apple's position as the dominant force in the global true wireless stereo (TWS) earbud market is expected to continue through 2025, according to Counterpoint Research. The forecast outlines a 3% year-over-year increase in global TWS unit shipments for 2025, signaling a transition from rapid growth to a more mature phase for the category. While Apple is set to remain the leading brand by...
Read Full Article • 33 comments
iphone 16 pro models 1

Here's How the iPhone 17 Pro Max Will Compare to the iPhone 17 Pro

Saturday July 5, 2025 1:00 pm PDT by
Apple should unveil the iPhone 17 series in September, and there might be one bigger difference between the Pro and Pro Max models this year. As always, the Pro Max model will be larger than the Pro model:iPhone 17 Pro: 6.3-inch display iPhone 17 Pro Max: 6.9-inch displayGiven the Pro Max is physically larger than the Pro, it has more internal space, allowing for a larger battery and...
Read Full Article • 73 comments
apple silicon mac lineup 2024 feature purple m5

Apple's Upcoming Macs Listed in New Report

Thursday July 3, 2025 9:09 am PDT by
AppleInsider's Marko Zivkovic today shared a list of alleged identifiers for future Mac models, which should roll out over the next year or so. The report does not reveal anything too surprising, but it does serve as further evidence that Apple is seemingly working on new models of every Mac, including the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac mini, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro. Apple is...
Read Full Article • 81 comments

Top Rated Comments

btrach144 Avatar
btrach144
55 months ago

Finally Lidar has a purpose!
But for real, Lidar is actually really neat but man, the implementations so far have been underwhelming.

While Clips might be a fun way, I hope we see other implementations in other apps.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
AngerDanger Avatar
AngerDanger
55 months ago

Clips has so much potential, I wish Apple invested more into it. I am about to try this new version.

I learned here on MacRumors that this app was actually a side work, an unintended product or something developed by an intern, I find it to be entertaining for young people and quite able to produce nice videos.
I agree 100%. Clips is an app that shows one of the very few applications of AR: realtime previews of visual effects. Between the gyro and LiDAR, you can track 3D objects into a scene as you're recording it, and subjects in the shot can walk in front of them.

This would've been insane a decade ago, but it's just an afterthought in one of Apple's least-marketed apps.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Unregistered 4U Avatar
Unregistered 4U
55 months ago

I thought this looked pretty neat in the M1 iPad Pro announcement. Now that I’ve had a chance to play around with it, it actually works better than I thought. I think Prism, Disco, and Dance Floor look the coolest.
I wish Dance Floor had some sort of beat detection in it. :)
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
GeoStructural Avatar
GeoStructural
55 months ago
Clips has so much potential, I wish Apple invested more into it. I am about to try this new version.

I learned here on MacRumors that this app was actually a side work, an unintended product or something developed by an intern, I find it to be entertaining for young people and quite able to produce nice videos.


I hope we see other implementations in other apps.
I agree with you. I can recommend "HELLO", "ARvid", and "in3D", but all of them are on the fun side of the spectrum, I haven't yet found that special app that makes good use of the LiDAR for precise measurement, realistic scanning and even professional use.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jimbobb24 Avatar
jimbobb24
55 months ago
Finally Lidar has a purpose!
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Unregistered 4U Avatar
Unregistered 4U
55 months ago

But for real, Lidar is actually really neat but man, the implementations so far have been underwhelming.

While Clips might be a fun way, I hope we see other implementations in other apps.
Lidar is not very whelming to start with. I’ve seen some nice room capture apps and “place the furniture” apps, but, in most cases, the fact that they’re underwhelming is a part of working well. If the couch against the wall looks like… well, a couch against a wall… YOU DID IT YAAAY! :) If you’re a plane or car mechanic, maybe that could show something cool, but 1) Cool in this case would be just to highlight the part and 2) You’d have to be a mechanic to really see it as cool, I guess.

Most of the impressive displays of AR in the near term is almost guaranteed to be lighthearted/frivolous. Like in the mechanic thing above, a lighthearted yet impression version of that would be showing you all the parts of the engine, how it connects to the transmission and back out through the exhaust, etc.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Read All Comments