AR Quick Look

AR Quick Look
Information
Type	Augmented reality viewer
Industry	Augmented reality
Developer	Apple Inc.
Operating System	iOS 12 and later, iPadOS, visionOS
License	Proprietary, built into the operating system
Supported Devices	iPhone, iPad, Apple Vision Pro
Release Date	September 17, 2018 (with iOS 12)
Website	https://developer.apple.com/augmented-reality/quick-look/

AR Quick Look is the built-in 3D and augmented reality (AR) viewer in Apple's operating systems. It displays USDZ models and Reality files, lets the user place them on real surfaces through the camera, and works from inside Apple's own apps, from web pages in Safari and from third-party apps, so no separate app has to be installed to view a model in AR. Apple introduced it, together with ARKit 2 and the USDZ format, at the Worldwide Developers Conference on June 4, 2018, and shipped it with iOS 12.

Apple's gallery page lists Safari, Messages, Mail, News and Notes among the built-in apps that use Quick Look to show USDZ objects in 3D on iPhone, iPad and Apple Vision Pro. It requires iOS 12 or iPadOS 12 or later, or visionOS 1 or later. Retailers use it for "try before you buy" product previews, and since iOS 13.3 a web page can add an Apple Pay button or a custom action banner to the AR view.

Reviewed 11 October 2026. Checked dates, version numbers, feature claims, web markup and banner parameters against Apple newsroom, developer documentation and WWDC18-WWDC26 session transcripts, the WebKit blog, TechCrunch, Macworld, Popular Science, Sketchfab, Next Reality and model-viewer docs. About review dates.

History

Introduction with iOS 12 (2018)

Apple announced ARKit 2 on June 4, 2018. In the same announcement it said that, in collaboration with Pixar, it was introducing usdz, an open file format based on Pixar's Universal Scene Description and "optimized for sharing in apps like Messages, Safari, Mail, Files and News". Apple wrote that "Using usdz, Quick Look for AR also allows users to place 3D objects into the real world to see how something would work in a space." ARKit 2 and usdz support were promised for the fall as part of a free update for iPhone 6s and later. Popular Science reported that Apple also announced a partnership with Adobe to bring USDZ into Creative Cloud apps.

The WWDC 2018 session "Integrating Apps and Content with AR Quick Look" (session 603), presented by David Lui and Dave Addey, described the viewer as a built-in way to display and share 3D content. It named six first-party apps that had adopted it: Files, Mail, Messages, Notes, News and Safari. AR placement was available on ARKit-compatible devices, and other devices got only the studio-style "object mode". The session also introduced the usdz converter, a command-line tool in Xcode 10 that converted OBJ, Alembic and USD files to usdz, and gave rough content guidance of about 100,000 polygons, about ten seconds of animation and one set of 2K physically based textures.

Before the public release, Sketchfab published five preview models that iOS 12 beta users could open with "View in AR on iOS 12" buttons, and described itself as one of Apple's USDZ launch partners. iOS 12 was released to the public on September 17, 2018.

iOS 13 (2019)

At WWDC 2019 Apple presented "Advances in AR Quick Look" (session 612). AR Quick Look gained support for Reality files made with the new Reality Composer app, and for viewing several models at once through a nested USDZ file. Anchoring, which had been limited to horizontal surfaces such as tables and floors, was extended to walls, faces and known 2D images; face anchoring needed a TrueDepth front camera. Shadows became dynamic and rendered in real time. Apple listed camera grain on all ARKit-supported devices, HDR with tone mapping on A10X devices and later, and people occlusion using the Neural Engine on A12 devices and later. The viewer also now launched straight into AR. Apple said that because of this "websites and apps do not have access to the camera feed or any user activity." The session also announced a customizable call to action with direct Apple Pay support for later that year, and said Warby Parker would offer virtual try-on on its website once Apple Pay support and the new AR Quick Look features arrived.

iOS 13 also added the ARQuickLookPreviewItem class for apps, which can turn off content scaling (the allowsContentScaling property) and share a canonical web page URL instead of the model file (canonicalWebPageURL).

Shopping features (2020)

The banner styles (Apple Pay, custom action and custom HTML) became available on the web with iOS 13.3 on iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. On February 13, 2020, TechCrunch reported that Apple had expanded Quick Look so retailers could add a purchase button that brings up an Apple Pay prompt, or a single other action such as starting a support chat, and that Home Depot, Wayfair, Bang & Olufsen and 1-800-Flowers were rolling out implementations. The same report said the latest developer builds added spatial audio, so a model could emit sound from its position in the room. In the WWDC 2020 session "Shop online with AR Quick Look", Apple recapped that iOS 13 had brought vertical plane detection and face accessories with automatic face occlusion, and that the price parameter for a custom action became optional in iOS 14.

Lighting update (2022)

In iOS 16 and later, AR Quick Look uses a new lighting environment with more brightness, contrast and visual definition. A USDZ file can request the classic or the new image-based lighting through a preferredIblVersion metadata value; if the value is missing, files created on or after July 1, 2022 get the new lighting. Apple's Reality Converter app and the usdzconvert tool can write this setting.

visionOS (2023 onward)

At WWDC 2023 Apple described Quick Look as the system viewer for file-backed content on its spatial computing platform, now visionOS. "Windowed Quick Look" opens a model in its own window outside the app that presented it; the user can scale and place 3D content, and in SharePlay Quick Look syncs a model's orientation, scale and animations between participants. Web pages that already used AR links on iOS carry over with no extra work: on Apple Vision Pro, Safari opens the linked model in a new Quick Look window and respects options such as disabled content scaling. At WWDC 2024 Apple added snapping of 3D models to horizontal surfaces such as a table or floor, and support for configurations (USDZ variants) that let a user switch, for example, between colors stored in one file. Apple said configurations also work on iOS and macOS and are synced between participants in a FaceTime call on visionOS.

Features

Viewing modes and interaction

AR Quick Look places content on surfaces that ARKit detects in the room. Users move and scale objects with touch gestures and can share them through the iOS share sheet. Besides AR mode there is an object mode that shows the model in a studio-like setting. The viewer adds a contact shadow itself, so Apple told creators not to bake shadows into models; a double tap resets the model to 100 percent scale. From iOS 13 the viewer showed an animation scrubber for longer animations, allowed objects to be lifted with a two-finger swipe, and could record video to the Photos library.

File formats

Content is supplied as a .usdz file or a .reality file. When a Reality Composer project (.rcproject) is placed in an app's Copy Files build phase, Xcode converts it to a .reality file at build time. Apple's gallery includes plain USDZ models, models with variants, a model made with Object Capture, and animated Reality files made for the Apple TV+ series For All Mankind.

Web embedding

A web page opens AR Quick Look by wrapping an image in a link to the model file:

<a rel="ar" href="model.usdz">
    <img src="model-preview.jpg">
</a>

Writing on the WebKit blog in October 2018, Dean Jackson explained that the rel="ar" attribute stops Safari from navigating away and opens the 3D view directly, returning to the page when the user exits. The link must have a single child that is an img or picture element, Safari marks such links with a 3D cube badge, and scripts can detect support with relList.supports("ar"). Files must be served as model/vnd.usdz+zip; before iOS 12.2 Safari expected model/vnd.pixar.usd instead. The same markup also works in a web view shown inside an app.

Google's open-source model-viewer web component uses AR Quick Look as its "quick-look" AR mode on iOS. It can either link a separate USDZ file through its ios-src attribute or, by default, generate a USDZ file on the fly.

At WWDC 2026 the Safari team presented the HTML model element, enabled by default in Safari on visionOS 26 since 2025, as coming to iOS, iPadOS and macOS. Wrapping a model element in an anchor with rel="ar" gives iOS and iPadOS users the full AR Quick Look experience.

Banners and Apple Pay

Banner options are set with URL fragment parameters on the model link. applePayButtonType shows an Apple Pay button, callToAction shows custom button text, and checkoutTitle, checkoutSubtitle and price describe the item. The custom parameter loads an HTML banner, which must be an absolute HTTPS URL; AR Quick Look shows its content but ignores links or events inside it. customHeight sets the banner to 81, 121 or 161 points (small, medium or large), with a maximum width of 450 points. When the user taps the button, WebKit sends a message event with the value "_apple_ar_quicklook_button_tapped" to the link, and the page handles the purchase, for example through Apple Pay JS.

App integration

Apps show AR Quick Look through the Quick Look framework's QLPreviewController, passing a supported file as the preview item. ARQuickLookPreviewItem is used instead when an app wants to block scaling or change what the share sheet sends. On visionOS, existing uses of quickLookPreview in SwiftUI or QLPreviewController carry over from iOS apps.

Supported platforms

Platform	Support
iPhone and iPad	iOS 12 or iPadOS 12 and later; AR placement on ARKit-compatible devices, object mode only on others
Apple Vision Pro	visionOS 1 and later; models open in separate Quick Look windows, where they can be scaled and placed
Mac	Clicking a model in the gallery on a Mac downloads the USDZ file; ARQuickLookPreviewItem is available to Mac Catalyst apps from 13.1

Adoption and reception

In its 2020 shopping session Apple said that companies such as Home Depot, 1-800-Flowers and Wayfair had adopted AR Quick Look in their shopping experiences, and it played a statement from Bang & Olufsen that users who engaged with its AR experience were four times more likely to look up its store finder. These figures are company claims made in Apple's presentation. Next Reality's Tommy Palladino compared the Apple Pay and custom action banners to Snapchat's shoppable AR and named 1-800-Flowers as one of the first retailers to use them, on its Valentine's Day bouquets. Apple's gallery also lists web examples from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Lamborghini and Bang & Olufsen.

Current status

As of October 2026, AR Quick Look is part of iOS, iPadOS and visionOS. Apple's gallery, which also mentions the model element in Safari on visionOS 26, still offers USDZ and Reality file examples for iPhone, iPad and Apple Vision Pro, and the WWDC 2026 model element session continues to use rel="ar" links as the route into AR Quick Look on iPhone and iPad.

See also

• USDZ
• ARKit
• RealityKit
• Reality Composer
• Reality Composer Pro
• WebXR
• WebAR