I nonetheless clearly keep in mind the sheer frustration of unboxing the unique Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional. I used to be holding what was arguably essentially the most superior piece of shopper expertise ever created—a spatial computing marvel with micro-OLED shows that felt like magic. But, after I needed to sit back and watch a high-res video, I hit a weird wall: there was no native YouTube app. For a tool closely marketed round media consumption and immersive video, this absence felt like shopping for a luxurious sports activities automobile solely to understand it didn’t include a radio. For 2 total years, early adopters and even consumers of the second-generation Imaginative and prescient Professional have been pressured to leap by means of hoops simply to observe their favourite creators.
Nicely, I’m thrilled to report that the standoff is lastly over. Google has formally launched the native YouTube app on the visionOS App Retailer. I instantly downloaded it, spent hours testing the interface, and I’ve to say—this isn’t only a lazy port. Google really did their homework. Let’s dive into what this implies for the Imaginative and prescient Professional ecosystem, why it took so lengthy, and what this indicators for the way forward for spatial computing.
Why Did It Take Two Years? The Third-Social gathering Drama
To grasp why this launch is such a giant deal, now we have to look again on the messy two-year historical past between Google and Apple’s headset.
When the Imaginative and prescient Professional first launched in February 2024, YouTube publicly said {that a} visionOS app was “on their roadmap,” however provided no timeline. As an alternative, they instructed customers to easily use the Safari net browser.
If in case you have ever tried navigating a posh video platform utilizing eye-tracking on an online browser constructed for a 2D display, you recognize precisely how clunky it was. You couldn’t correctly have interaction with 360-degree movies, the interface was inflexible, and the general expertise felt fully disjointed from the seamless magic of visionOS.
The Rise and Fall of Juno
Nature abhors a vacuum, and so do software program builders. Within the absence of an official app, indie builders stepped up. Essentially the most well-known instance was Juno, a fantastically designed third-party app that gave Imaginative and prescient Professional customers the YouTube expertise they craved.
However in fact, the company hammer finally fell. Google aggressively enforced its API insurance policies, leading to Juno being pulled from the App Retailer. Whereas just a few different workarounds popped up, none provided the soundness and full characteristic set of an official consumer. We have been left ready at the hours of darkness—till at the moment.
Not Simply an iPad Port: A True Spatial Expertise
My largest concern after I noticed the obtain button was that Google had merely checked a field permitting the present iPad model of YouTube to run on visionOS. ( you, Instagram). Fortunately, I used to be fallacious.
Google has constructed an interface particularly tailor-made for spatial computing.
The Interface Design
While you launch the app, you aren’t simply taking a look at a flat window. The UI is constructed utilizing spatial panels that float elegantly in your bodily area.
Depth and Shadows: The menus have a way of depth, casting refined shadows on the video participant behind them.Eye-Monitoring Optimization: The thumbnails and navigation buttons are correctly sized and spaced, that means your eyes can simply lock onto a video with out unintentionally highlighting the fallacious component.
Native 3D, 180°, and 360° Video Assist
This is absolutely the game-changer. For 2 years, Imaginative and prescient Professional customers have been locked out of YouTube’s huge library of immersive content material.
With the native app, 3D, 180-degree, and full 360-degree VR movies are fully supported. I examined a 360-degree scuba diving video, and the transition from a floating 2D window to a completely wrapped, immersive setting was flawless. The Imaginative and prescient Professional’s shows lastly have a platform huge sufficient to feed them high-quality spatial content material. If you’re a VR content material creator, your viewers simply obtained an enormous improve in viewing high quality.
Full Ecosystem Integration
An amazing VR participant is ineffective if you happen to can’t really discover your content material. Google didn’t maintain again on the account integration.
When you log in, you get the very same highly effective algorithm and have set you’re used to in your cellphone or good TV:
Seamless Sync: Your watch historical past, appreciated movies, and subscriptions are all completely synced.Customized Suggestions: The house feed is immediately populated together with your particular algorithm.YouTube Shorts Integration: Sure, the doom-scroll has formally entered the spatial period. Google created a devoted, vertically-oriented interface for Shorts. It’s surprisingly comfy to drag up an enormous, life-sized Quick and swipe by means of utilizing easy finger pinches.
The Larger Image: Google’s XR Technique
So, why now? Why did Google all of a sudden resolve to drop a extremely polished spatial app after two years of complete silence?
Whereas Google hasn’t launched a proper assertion detailing their strategic timeline, I’ve my theories.
We all know that Google has been aggressively increasing its personal Prolonged Actuality (XR) ambitions. With their ongoing partnerships within the Android XR area (particularly with Samsung to construct a competing headset platform), Google can not afford to have its flagship media platform look hostile to spatial computing.
By constructing a top-tier app for visionOS, Google is basically warming up its spatial design muscular tissues. They’re proving that YouTube is prepared for the following era of computing, no matter whether or not that {hardware} is made by Apple, Samsung, or anybody else. They’re claiming the territory of “default video participant” for the complete XR business.
The Elephant within the Room: The place is Netflix?
This brings us to the inevitable subsequent query. Now that YouTube has surrendered to the fact of the Imaginative and prescient Professional, all eyes are obtrusive straight at Netflix.
Similar to YouTube, Netflix refused to construct a local app for the Imaginative and prescient Professional at launch, forcing customers to rely on the internet browser. And in contrast to YouTube, Netflix doesn’t actually have a huge library of 360-degree user-generated content material to fret about—they simply have to construct an amazing 2D spatial theater!
But, as of scripting this, there may be zero official phrase from Netflix concerning a visionOS app. With YouTube now providing a premium spatial expertise, and Disney+ having provided unimaginable 3D environments since day one, Netflix’s stubbornness is beginning to look much less like a protest and extra like an enormous missed alternative.
I’m extremely relieved that I can lastly watch my favourite tech reviewers, video essays, and 360-degree journey vlogs natively on my headset. The Imaginative and prescient Professional lastly feels a bit of extra full.
However I’ve to ask you: Now that Google has caved, how lengthy do you assume it’s going to take for Netflix to swallow their delight and launch a Imaginative and prescient Professional app? Or do you assume they’ll maintain out ceaselessly? Let me know your predictions within the feedback beneath!
