ByteDance, the Chinese company best known for creating TikTok, got into the virtual reality game when it bought the startup Pico in 2021. Now, Pico is taking its mixed reality (XR) efforts even more seriously by building out software that lets people use multiple applications in 3D digital workspaces. Many of its features sound very much like what you can find in the Apple Vision Pro, two years after that device launched.
At Mobile World Congress 2026 in Barcelona, Pico announced its newest XR operating system, Pico OS 6. The OS will not work on the company’s existing Pico 4 from 2022, but is aimed to deploy on Pico’s unreleased headset, nicknamed Project Swan. At MWC, Pico only offered a light spritz of information about its upcoming headset. But details about what features it plans to put in its OS offer a good look at what Pico hopes to achieve with its flagship device, which it says will arrive this year.
One of the big focuses of the new operating system version is what Pico calls PanoScreen, a feature that lets the wearer run multiple applications at once while also keeping a 360-degree view of the real-world space around them. Other users can pop into the space as 3D avatars while you spin around to see spreadsheets, browser tabs, design software, or whatever else you’re working on. “Pico OS 6 represents a step toward making XR a practical computing tool, not just a gaming device,” the company says in its press release. (WIRED asked for comment directly, but Pico declined to answer any questions about its new OS or Project Swan.)
Spatial Race
If Pico’s 3D workspace focus feels familiar, it is probably because Apple had a very similar approach when it launched its Apple Vision Pro headset in 2024.
“It’s a little odd, their timing,” says Jitesh Ubrani, a research manager at the analyst group IDC. “The fact that they’re getting into the market at all also seems a little strange.”
Pico is not the only one working on XR workspaces. Sightful’s Spacetop glasses brought spatial computing into the workplace in a way that was more approachable than the Apple Vision Pro, not to mention much easier to wear than a bulky headset. In July 2025, The Information reported that Pico was working on a different ultralight headset meant to go face-to-face with Meta’s Orion glasses, but it was ultimately canceled.
Like every face computer out there, Pico’s upcoming flagship headset will be aiming to find the delicate balance between usefulness and wearability. At its MWC event, Pico gave a few hints about how that might pan out for Project Swan. Pico says the headset will have a micro-OLED display with a pixel density approaching 4,000 pixels per inch. It will also supposedly have a resolution of 40 pixels per degree (PPD) with a “center sweet spot” at around 45 PPD to help read all that tiny text in your floating spreadsheets.
Those are specs that are very close to the Apple Vision Pro. To compete, Pico would have to make something cheaper and lighter, but also have developers building on its platform. (The Apple Vision Pro starts at $3,499.)
Pico OS 6 will work with developer toolkits like Spatial, OpenXR, and WebXR. It also allows for development in Unity and Unreal Engine. The OS has support for Android apps, web apps, and PCVR streaming. WebSpatial, an open source toolkit, lets users develop their own apps using standard web tools like HTML and CSS to create spatial computing services. Those apps can run cross-platform across Pico OS, Apple’s visionOS, and Android XR.
Compared to the big players like Apple and Meta, what Pico had going for it was its more open approach to development on its platform. But Google’s launch of Android XR in late 2025 brought renewed interest in mixed reality, bringing big developers on board. Both Google and Samsung, along with other developers, are actively building products on Android XR, though Samsung’s Galaxy XR headset focuses more on entertainment and gaming than work at the moment. Still, it feels as though Pico’s move toward a premium, work-focused headset has come a little late.
“They do have this huge marketing engine that is TikTok, and so they can leverage that,” Ubrani says. “But if this is a productivity-oriented device, that may not be the right place to market it.”
Pico has a session at GDC, the Game Developers Conference, on March 12, where it’s expected to share more details about Project Swan.
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