The Antigravity A1 just got a major update — and it fixes some of our biggest complaints

When our reviewer Anderson Ta put the Antigravity A1 through its paces earlier this year, he came away impressed by the concept but with some real reservations about the execution. The obstacle avoidance was limited to only forward and downward sensors, which left a lot of blind spots for a drone being marketed to creators focused on flying rather than watching for obstacles. Signal deteriorated at certain obstructions. And a forced firmware update in the field — with no cell service available — locked him out of features mid-trip.

All those issues should be averted going forward. That’s because Antigravity just released its U3 firmware update, and it addresses several of those complaints to a tee. Here’s what’s new, what actually matters, and what to expect when you update.

Update your firmware first

Before your next flight, update to firmware V4.0.6.3 via the Antigravity app. Then, update the app itself to version 1.2.0 from the App Store. Do this at home on stable Wi-Fi before your next flight (not in the field where you might not have a connection).

Everything I love about the new Antigravity update

Omnidirectional obstacle avoidance: the update that matters most

This is the headline improvement for this new drone.

The original A1 had forward and downward obstacle sensing only, which meant anything approaching from the sides, above, or behind was invisible to the drone’s safety systems. For a 360-degree camera drone often flown while watching immersive goggle footage rather than the aircraft itself, that gap was mildly concerning.

The U3 update adds full omnidirectional obstacle avoidance — that’s front, back, left, right, up, and down. The drone will now automatically brake or maneuver around obstacles from any direction. Antigravity has also added obstacle bypass, meaning instead of simply stopping when it detects something, the A1 can actively fly around it.

Voice control: more useful than it sounds

Voice control on consumer drones has historically been a novelty that nobody actually uses. The A1’s implementation does make actual sense though. That’s because the use case is specific and real: you’re wearing the Vision goggles, you’re focused on flying, and reaching for a button is truly more difficult.

How do you use it? Single-click the home button on the left side of the goggles to wake the Voice Assistant, then speak your command. Supported basic operations include takeoff and landing, return to home, switching between motion control and FPV modes, starting and stopping recording, taking photos, switching to slow motion, and starting and stopping screen recording.

The commands to start with: “Take off,” “Start recording,” “Stop recording,” “Take a photo,” “Return to home.” Keep them simple — this is a Siri-lite experience, not a full natural language system. Avoid the advanced voice features like obstacle avoidance control and smart features for now; Antigravity flags those as preview-only and not recommended for regular use yet. Supported languages are currently English and Chinese.

Auto Edit improvements: more variety, better results

Auto Edit was one of the more promising features of the original A1 but could produce repetitive results. The U3 update rewrites the editing logic with a wider variety of shot types including 360 motion and FPV-style perspectives that weren’t available before. For video editors, expect better pacing plus AI-powered sound effects that add atmosphere to the final video.

Some tips to maximize results on this:

Individual clips should be at least one minute long.
Total footage should exceed 20 minutes (shorter clips give the algorithm less to work with).
Keep subjects visually interesting and varied.
Include at least three different scenes or locations.
Shoot in good lighting.
Avoid night footage (not recommended for Auto Edit).
In flight, use a variety of paths — wide turns, orbit shots, noticeable altitude changes — and maintain stable low-altitude horizontal flight below 40 meters with a visible subject in frame for more than 12 seconds when you want cinematic output.

On the technical side: make sure your footage has proxy files (.prx), which are generated automatically when using QuickTransfer or direct connection. If you’re importing manually, keep the .prx files in the same directory as your footage — without them, processing will be significantly slower. For the best Auto Edit experience, use iPhone 15 or above on iOS, or Samsung S24 series and above on Android.

Virtual Cockpit third-person view

The Virtual Cockpit now supports switching between first-person and third-person views. That means you can watch the drone from behind, as if playing a video game, rather than looking through its eyes.

Access it through Menu → Virtual Cockpit → select a cockpit skin → choose Switching Perspective.

Assigning the C1 custom button to Switch Cockpit lets you toggle instantly during flight. Antigravity suggests matching the cockpit skin to your environment (the dragon cockpit in a mountain or canyon setting works particularly well) and including shots of the perspective switch to make footage more dynamic.

What do you think about the software update? Does it compel you to finally buy an Antigravity A1 drone? Does it change how you fly your drone today? Tell me in the comments!

The post The Antigravity A1 just got a major update — and it fixes some of our biggest complaints appeared first on The Drone Girl.