There are already more than 600 dedicated apps for Apple’s Vision Pro headset, but YouTube isn’t one of them. And last month the Google-owned service outright said it had absolutely no plans to develop such an app.
How a few weeks can change things. Today YouTube did a 180 and told The Verge that it’s got a Vision Pro app “on the roadmap”. Unfortunately it didn’t want to say when we should expect the app to land on Apple’s headset. In the meantime, YouTube says it’s supporting the Vision Pro “by ensuring YouTube users have a great experience in Safari”.
This is quite the development – it’s not customary for companies to deny any interest in a new product the way YouTube did last month, and it’s even less of an ordinary occurrence for them to change their minds so quickly.
It’s unclear why that happened. Perhaps the Vision Pro proved to be much more popular than Google and YouTube had initially anticipated? Or maybe it all has to do with the popularity of a $5 third-party YouTube app that already exists for the Vision Pro and how that’s No.3 in the Photo & Video category in the App Store downloads for the headset.
We’ll probably never know for sure, but the point is – if you want an official app, you’re getting one. Whenever that lands, it’s unlikely to support 360-degree and VR YouTube videos – those already on YouTube and not created for the Vision Pro – since none of them work in Safari either. That’s because Apple thinks they aren’t good enough.
An Apple spokesperson said: “Much of this content was created for devices that do not deliver a high-quality spatial experience. In some cases, this content could also cause motion discomfort. We’ve focused our efforts on delivering the best spatial media experience possible including spatial photos and videos, Apple Immersive Video, and 3D movies available on Apple TV”.
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