3D scene creation has, until now, been the preserve of people with specialist rigs and complex software. Insta360 is trying to change that. At the opening of its first North American flagship store in Times Square, the company has unveiled Spatial Capture for the X6, a feature that turns an ordinary 360 video into an explorable 3D scene, and it’s a genuinely clever use of what a 360 camera already does. Details are on the Insta360 X6 product page.
What it actually does
The technology underneath is 3D Gaussian Splatting, or 3DGS, which recreates a real-world space as a 3D scene from images or video. If you’ve not come across it, the finished result is unlike a photo or a normal video: you can move through it freely, viewing the space from different positions and angles, rather than being fixed to wherever the camera happened to be.
The catch with 3DGS has always been the capture. Getting a clean result normally means methodically photographing a space from many angles, making sure you don’t miss any, then processing it all in specialist software. That’s exactly the friction Insta360 has gone after. Because the X6 records every direction at once, you simply walk through a space with the camera and it sees everything as you go, no repeatedly pointing it at different areas, no worrying about gaps. The app then turns that footage into the explorable scene.
How the workflow runs
It’s refreshingly simple. You record a 360 video of the space, up to two minutes long (longer clips can be trimmed first), then in the Insta360 app you pick the footage on the Spatial Capture page and tap Generate. The processing happens in the cloud and takes roughly one to two hours, and you can close the app and get a notification when it’s ready.
Once it’s done, you explore the scene using touch controls, a virtual joystick or the phone’s gyroscope. You can add effects, build custom camera paths, then export the result as a video or share an interactive link that lets other people explore the scene without downloading an app or a file. That last part is the clever bit for anyone wanting to show work to a client or an audience — a shareable link that just opens in a browser removes the usual barrier to letting people experience 3D content.
Who it’s for
Insta360 is pitching this at personal memories as much as professional use — preserving a childhood home before a move, a travel destination, an artist’s studio, a temporary exhibition. As Max Richter, VP of Marketing and co-founder, puts it, spatial creation shouldn’t be limited to people with specialist equipment or expertise.
For our readers there’s a more practical angle. If you shoot for estate agents, galleries, small businesses or venues, being able to capture a store, a studio or an exhibition as an explorable 3D scene, with kit you may already own and no specialist workflow, is a genuinely useful commercial tool. It sits alongside the wider move towards spatial imaging we’ve seen this month, including Canon’s Dual Pixel 3D, and it’s arguably the most accessible version of the idea yet.
The caveats worth knowing
A few things to be clear about. This is a US rollout first, from 28 September, with no UK date confirmed — so British users are waiting. The free tier allows up to four 3DGS scenes per month, which suggests a paid tier beyond that, though Insta360 hasn’t detailed the pricing. Processing is cloud-based, so your footage is uploaded to Insta360’s servers to be turned into a scene, which is worth knowing if you’re capturing anything sensitive. And it’s currently limited to two-minute clips, so this is for rooms and defined spaces rather than sprawling environments.
The good news is that it isn’t X6-only: support extends to the X5 and X4 Air as well, so existing owners aren’t left out. As ever with a feature like this, the real test is how convincing the finished scenes look with everyday capture rather than in a polished demo, and that’s exactly what we’d want to try hands-on.
Insta360 X6 Spatial Capture: what to know
What it is: a feature turning 360 video into an explorable 3D scene using 3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS). Capture: record a 360 video of a space (up to two minutes; longer clips can be trimmed) — the camera captures all directions at once, removing the need for multi-angle capture. Processing: cloud-based, typically one to two hours; app can be closed while waiting. Output: explore via touch, virtual joystick or gyroscope; add effects and custom camera paths; export as video or share an interactive browser link. Supported cameras: Insta360 X6, X5 and X4 Air. Free tier: up to four 3DGS scenes per month. Availability: rolls out in the United States on 28 September 2026; no UK date confirmed. Try it: demonstrated at Insta360’s first North American flagship store, 1515 Broadway, Times Square, New York, opening 19 September.