I go into more depth about how visionOS works in my review of the original Vision Pro, but here are the basics. VisionOS is built on iPadOS, so many of the operating system’s interface elements and menu layouts will feel very similar to those found on those devices. Pressing the digital crown on the headset, or looking at your hand and bringing your fingers together, will display a home view of installed apps arranged in icons similar to those on an iPad. If you look at your hand until the Home button appears, then turn your hand over, you’ll see a status bar that you can tap to open a quick menu instead. From there, you can adjust the audio, toggle different modes including Airplane and Travel, connect to a Mac through Mac Virtual Display, or stream what you’re looking at to an Apple AirPlay device.
Widgets on my wall (Credit: Will Greenwald, Apple)
Apple has made a notable addition to visionOS since the headset’s launch, in the form of widgets. The OS now features widgets similar to iOS and iPadOS, allowing you to display a clock, weather report, or music player that’s simpler and less intrusive than a full app. Most interesting is how you can use them: Since visionOS doesn’t have a specific “screen” to put widgets on, you can instead affix them to your physical walls, where they’ll stay in place. The weather widget appears as a window that shows blue skies when the weather is clear, which is a really neat touch.
Most apps pop up a floating window with a thin bar indicating the bottom edge. You can move the app anywhere by looking at that bar and pinching, then moving your hand. You can also resize the app by looking at the lower left or right corners until a curved line appears and pinching it, or close the app by tapping the X button to the left of the bar. Some apps and games completely take over your view and can be interacted with like conventional VR software.
Apple TV’s immersive video menu (Credit: Will Greenwald, Apple)
Speaking of software, visionOS hasn’t seen many major app or game releases since the Vision Pro’s initial launch, but immersive media has been steadily trickling out through Apple TV and some other streaming apps. There isn’t a ton, but what’s there looks great.
I watched the first episode of World of Red Bull, “Backcountry Skiing,” on the Vision Pro, and it was incredible. The immersive video displays a 180-degree dome, completely covering your field of view with 3D footage that pops out like you’re there. The snow flying in your face in ground shots and the mountains moving under you in aerial clips look lifelike, with plenty of depth. The sharp display makes it look better than any 3D visuals I’ve seen on Meta’s lower-resolution headsets. The majority of the immersive video on Apple TV is nature, sports, and concert footage, but there’s still enough to visually impress.
Because it’s based on iPadOS, visionOS can run thousands of iPad apps, which appear as floating 2D windows that you can resize and move around. In fact, the control you have over multiple apps at once on visionOS is even better than it is on an iPad because you can look around and see everything that’s open.
Using Safari, Apple Maps, and Apple News at the same time (Credit: Will Greenwald, Apple)
Most major iPad and iPhone apps are compatible with the Vision Pro, with a few notable exceptions. Apple’s main mobile and productivity apps are preinstalled, including FaceTime, Mail, Messages, and Safari, with others like Pages available for download. The iPad versions of Microsoft’s Chrome and the Office suite run on visionOS, along with Adobe Lightroom and Premiere.
Then there are the exceptions I mentioned. Apple’s own Final Cut Pro and GarageBand are missing from the Vision Pro, despite having their own iPad apps, and Adobe Photoshop is nowhere to be found. The worst omissions to me, however, are Google’s. Chrome, Gmail, Google Docs, Google Drive, Google Maps, and Google Sheets all simply don’t work as apps on the Vision Pro. You can access most of these services (except Chrome) through webpages via Safari, Firefox, or Edge, but they’re clunkier than the iPad versions of the apps. It baffles me that these apps are still not on visionOS, considering they’ve all been reliably running on iOS and iPadOS for years.
Game Room on the Vision Pro (Credit: Will Greenwald, Apple)
The Vision Pro is nearly as capable for gaming as the iPad Pro, especially when paired with a Bluetooth gamepad, such as an Xbox Wireless Controller. In addition to a handful of immersive mixed reality experiences for the headset, you can play most iPad games available on Apple Arcade, including PowerWash Simulator and Cult of the Lamb. A number of other games also work on the Vision Pro, including iPad ports of classics like Baldur’s Gate 1 and 2 and Knights of the Old Republic 1 and 2. You can also stream games locally over the Steam Link iPad app and even through the cloud with Nvidia GeForce Now’s web portal. However, cloud gaming through Xbox Game Pass Ultimate doesn’t work on the Vision Pro.