Vision Pro apps: the good, the bad, and the ridiculous

Here’s a little bit of an about-face: YouTube now says it has a Vision Pro app on its roadmap. I mean this literally, as YouTube spokesperson Jessica Gibby just emailed me the following statement: “We’re excited to see Vision Pro launch and we’re supporting it by ensuring YouTube users have a great experience in Safari. We do not have any specific plans to share at this time, but can confirm that a Vision Pro app is on our roadmap.”

This of course follows YouTube, Spotify, and Netflix all declining to allow their iPad apps to run on the Vision Pro before launch — and the last time we asked, there was no mention of a proper visionOS YouTube app coming in the future, so something’s changed in Mountain View. (One theory: the immediate popularity of Christian Selig’s Juno app for YouTube on the Vision Pro.) Gibby didn’t give a date for this roadmap, so we’ll have to wait and see what YouTube does here — it could just tweak the iPad app, or it could do a lot more.

Apple has finally put a number on how many apps will work with the Vision Pro at launch. In an announcement on Thursday, the company says more than 600 apps and games optimized for the Vision Pro will be available starting on Friday.

In addition to the compatible streaming apps Apple revealed last month, Apple now says wearers will be able to access apps from cable providers like Charter, Spectrum, Comcast, Cox, Sling TV, and Verizon Fios. There’s also support for the NBA app and PGA Tour Vision that provides users with “real-time shot tracking layered on top of 3D models of real golf courses.” More than 250 Apple Arcade games will also work on the Vision Pro, too, such as Lego Builder’s Journey, Super Fruit Ninja, Bloons TD 6, Skatrix Pro, What the Golf?, Cut the Rope 3, and more.

Microsoft is launching a suite of its Microsoft 365 apps on Apple’s Vision Pro headset later this week. Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Loop, and Microsoft Teams will all be available in the App Store for Apple Vision Pro on February 2nd — the same day Apple’s new headset is available in stores.

Apple Vision Pro owners will also be able to access an AI-powered version of Copilot while using the headset, including the ability to create drafts, summarize documents, and generate PowerPoint presentations with your voice.

The Vision Pro, Apple’s new “spatial computing” headset, comes with a lot of limits. It’s a technically impressive $3,499 device that’s straining against the basic capabilities of screens, cameras, eye tracking, and sheer component weight. Yet as I’ve watched the Vision Pro go from announcement to release, it’s also seemed held back by something that has little to do with hardware. Apple is trying to create the computer of the future, but it’s doing so under the tech company mindset of the present: one obsessed with consolidation, closed ecosystems, and treating platforms as a zero-sum game.

Apple is launching the Vision Pro with parts of the iPad catalog and a variety of specially tailored immersive content. But out of the box, you might notice a few gaps. You can’t stream Netflix via a native app on the platform or watch videos on a YouTube app. Despite being a device built around interactive 3D computing, you won’t find projects from Apple’s once-close collaborator Epic, whose Unreal Engine and Infinity Blade series helped establish iOS as a home for 3D games. And there’s a remarkable lack of fitness content, given how much Apple has focused on it elsewhere.

Zoom’s Vision Pro app will launch alongside Apple’s new headset on February 2nd and let wearers use its “persona” (a digital avatar based on their face scans) during video calls. Whoever they’re calling will see their facial expressions and hand movements as if they’re not wearing a headset, much like Apple’s FaceTime app for the Vision Pro.

The upcoming Zoom app will also take advantage of the Vision Pro’s augmented reality capabilities, allowing it to blend in with users’ physical environments while surfacing as a floating window. These features will be available when the app launches with the headset on Friday, February 2nd.

In the days ahead of the Vision Pro’s launch, Apple has heavily promoted some of the apps destined for its spatial computing headset. Download Disney Plus and watch movies from Tatooine! Slack and Fantastical and Microsoft Office on your face! FaceTime with your friends as a floating hologram! But it’s increasingly clear that the early success of the Vision Pro, and much of the answer to the question of what this headset is actually for, will come from a single app: Safari. 

That’s right, friends. Web browsers are back. And Apple needs them more than ever if it wants this $3,500 face computer to be a hit. Embracing the web will mean threatening the very things that have made Apple so powerful and so rich in the mobile era, but at least at first, the open web is Apple’s best chance to make its headset a winner. Because at least so far, it seems developers are not exactly jumping to build new apps for Apple’s new platform.

Apple’s Vision Pro headset won’t have a dedicated Netflix app at launch, according to a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. The streaming giant reportedly doesn’t plan to launch an app specifically for Apple’s headset, nor does it want to make its iPad app compatible with the platform.

The move means users won’t be able to watch Netflix in a dedicated app — like the other streaming services that have announced support for the headset, including Disney Plus, Max, Amazon Prime Video, and Paramount Plus. Instead, users will have to watch content from Netflix in a web browser, which will make the movies or TV shows wearers are watching far less immersive. It also will prevent users from watching content offline and could put limitations on resolution, as the video quality on Netflix’s web app varies by browser.

Just like Netflix, YouTube also isn’t building a native app for the Vision Pro. Its iPad app won’t support the $3,499 headset, either, as YouTube spokesperson Jessica Gibby tells The Verge, “YouTube users will be able to use YouTube in Safari on the Vision Pro.”

Those aren’t the only major services that won’t have dedicated apps on the Vision Pro. A source familiar with the situation tells Bloomberg that Spotify isn’t planning to create a new app for the Vision Pro and “doesn’t expect to enable its iPad app to run on the device,” potentially forcing users to access Spotify in a web browser.

Apple and Disney announced that the Vision Pro will have 3D content from Disney Plus at launch, while Disney Plus subscribers will get special animated screening environments to accompany them. Other apps announced with Vision Pro support include ESPN, MLB, PGA Tour, Max, Discovery Plus, Amazon Prime Video, Paramount Plus, Peacock, Pluto TV, Tubi, Fubo, Crunchyroll, Red Bull TV, IMAX, TikTok, and MUBI. A notable omission from the list is Netflix; however, executives have previously said that the existing app will work unmodified on Apple’s new headset.

The announcement lists some of the movies that will be in 3D, and naturally, Avatar: The Way of Water is among them. But Vision Pro owners will also get 3D versions of movies like Avengers: Endgame, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and Encanto.