Apple Acquires TrueMeeting to Enhance Vision Pro Avatars

Wow, okay, so here’s the thing—Apple just kinda snuck up and bought this company, TrueMeeting. If you blinked, you might’ve missed it. I mean, it was January when this went down, right? This little company is all about 3D avatars. Imagine that. Apple getting cozy with some high-tech facial voodoo. Kinda makes you think, doesn’t it?

Seriously, it first popped up in some European Commission doc, thanks to the folks at MacGeneration who have their eagle eyes on such stuff. Yeah, a filing full of legal blah-blah about mergers. But anyway—wait, where was I? Oh right, TrueMeeting. They’re chillin’ in Tel Aviv and Silicon Valley. Apple nabbed them and also took their tech and, of course, plucked a bunch of their brainy workers. (I wonder if they had to up and move, or did they just set their Zoom backgrounds to look like Cupertino?)

Here’s something wild—they kicked things off back in 2019 calling themselves CommonGround-AI. That name though. They built this app that lets you scan your face with your phone and jump into avatar video chats. Like, you don’t even need an XR headset. Just your mug and a smartphone.

And you know what? I feel like we’re already seeing their handiwork in those slick Apple avatars, Personas they call them. At their big-deal shindig, the Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple was all like, “Look at these shiny new Personas on Vision Pro.” They showed off these avatars in this VisionOS 26 update. It’s like dressing up for fall, but digital.

We had Ben Lang from Road to VR getting all hands-on with these avatars—this dude knows his stuff. He was like, “Man, the skin looks extra detailed, even saw my stubble!” I don’t know why, but imagining him saying that kinda cracks me up. He also said something about your face doing weird things and the avatars still looking real. Okay, maybe I’m hyped for nothing, but it sounds curious.

Now, here’s the cherry on top—Apple picked up WhyLabs too. They’re into AI stuff, making sure those models don’t crash and burn or go all Skynet on us. (Though let’s be real, wouldn’t that be a plot twist?)

So yeah, Apple’s out here moving chess pieces while we’re all just trying to remember where we left our chargers. Go figure.