YouTube for visionOS
When Apple’s Vision Pro mixed reality headset launched in February 2024, users were frustrated at the lack of a proper YouTube app—a significant disappointment given the device’s focus on video content consumption, and YouTube’s strong library of immersive VR and 360 videos. That complaint continued through the release of the second-generation Vision Pro last year, including in our review.
Now, two years later, an official YouTube app from Google has launched on the Vision Pro’s app store. It’s not just a port of the iPad app, either—it has panels arranged spatially in front of the user as you’d expect, and it supports 3D videos, as well as 360- and 180-degree ones.
It’s been an embarrassment on both sides: for Apple, which couldn’t muster sufficient enthusiasm for its first new platform in a decade; and for Google, which actively opted out of allowing its iPad app on the Vision Pro two years ago—and then blocked third-party apps hoping to fill the void.
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While I haven’t yet fired it up on my Apple Vision Pro (it needs to be charged, lol), I’ll give this release a qualified finally.
Cynical take: they only made an official YouTube app for Vision Pro to make sure that those users aren’t actively bypassing their low-grade poorly-targeted inserted advertising.
Now, it’s Netflix’s turn.
Previously:
- YouTube Blocks Background Playback
- Juno for YouTube Removed From the App Store
- Launch Day Apple Vision Pro Apps
- Netflix and the Initial Apple Vision Pro Apps
