There’s been a lot of chatter this week about just how many apps are available inside the Apple Vision Pro, and it seems third-party developers are taking up the challenge of filling in any notable gaps in the app selection.
As per MacRumors, developer Christian Selig has released a dedicated YouTube app for the Vision Pro, called Juno for YouTube. Notably, it’s the only YouTube client on the headset, as Google hasn’t released an official app.
Costing $4.99, the app comes with a number of useful features, including options to resize and reposition the playback window, as well as dim the area surrounding the video for that virtual cinema theater feeling inside mixed reality.
As we already know, Google has specifically said it doesn’t currently have plans to develop a YouTube app for the Vision Pro. For the time being, the only official way to get at YouTube in the Apple headset is to load it up through Safari.
There might be an app for that
Initial worries over app availability on the Vision Pro were somewhat assuaged as the device went on sale, with news that more than 600 apps are on the way soon (though the current selection is much smaller).
We’ve already seen Adobe make the leap into mixed reality, with its Firefly AI app. You can use it to create images generated by artificial intelligence, from any text prompt – with the end results floating in front of your eyes.
However, there are notable holdouts, including Netflix and Spotify, as well as Google. While YouTube does allow developers some access to its inner workings, that’s not the case with Netflix or Spotify, so don’t expect third-party clients for them.
Clearly the limited number of people who actually have an Apple Vision Pro is making software developers think twice about whether or not to support the hardware – but based on our time with the headset, it’s likely to get more popular very quickly.