Apple patents 3D app menus that keep apps in place when you move
Apple has filed a patent for a system that displays app icons in a three-dimensional space rather than on a flat screen. When you open an app, it appears at a specific spot relative to where the menu was, so the layout stays consistent even if you move the menu around.
In the filing’s own words
A computer system displays, via one or more display generation components, a home menu user interface at a respective location and detects a user input for launching an application from the home menu user interface. In response, the computer system displays, at a respective application location, an application user interface associated with the application, including: if the home menu user interface was in a first home menu location, displaying the application user interface at a first application location that has a respective spatial offset from the first home menu location; and, if the home menu user interface was in a second home menu location, different from the first home menu location, displaying the application user interface at a second application location that has the respective spatial offset from the second home menu location, the second application location being different from the first application location.
What exactly they claim (claim 1)
1. A method, comprising: at a computer system that is in communication with one or more display generation components and one or more input devices: displaying, via the one or more display generation components, a home menu user interface at a respective location; while displaying the home menu user interface at the respective location, detecting a first user input for launching an application from the home menu user interface; and in response to detecting the first user input for launching the application from the home menu user interface, displaying, at a respective application location, an application user interface associated with the application, including: in accordance with a determination that the home menu user interface was in a first home menu location, displaying the application user interface at a first application location that has a respective spatial offset from the first home menu location; and in accordance with a determination that the home menu user interface was in a second home menu location, wherein the second home menu location is different from the first home menu location, displaying the application user interface at a second application location that has the respective spatial offset from the second home menu location, wherein the second application location is different from the first application location.
Facts
- Company
- Apple (Apple Inc.)
- Official title
- Devices, Methods, and Graphical User Interfaces for Interacting with Three-Dimensional Environments
- Publication number
- US20260319633A1
- Application number
- 19462943
- Filed
- Jan 28, 2026
- Published
- Oct 15, 2026
- Inventors
- 2
- Claims
- 24
Classified under
G06F 3/04815 Physics & computingG06F 3/012 Physics & computingG06F 3/0482 Physics & computingG06F 3/0487 Physics & computingG06F 3/04817 Physics & computingMore from Apple in AR, VR & displays
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Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.