YouTube planning Apple Vision Pro app, points users to Safari until then

No* Google apps are available on the Apple Vision Pro at launch, but YouTube revealed today that a “Vision Pro app is on [its] roadmap.”

The statement to The Verge also says Google is focusing on “ensuring YouTube users have a great experience in Safari.” No time frame was provided.

“We’re excited to see Vision Pro launch and we’re supporting it by ensuring YouTube users have a great experience in Safari. We do not have any specific plans to share at this time, but can confirm that a Vision Pro app is on our roadmap.”

At the moment, you just get the desktop version of youtube.com in Safari. It’s usable, but button placement is unchanged so all the touch targets are very close together and not ideal for eye tracking. It’s especially easy to press the wrong control in the video player. That said, controlling the seek bar with your hand is quite fun. (YouTube Music is simpler and works rather well.)

A “Vision Pro app” sounds like a native client rather than just iPad compatibility mode, but YouTube did not provide more details today. As a reminder, YouTube has offered a Meta Quest app with a 3D/VR layout for some time now. (If you have Vision Pro, there is a third-party client called Juno available today.

At launch, Google did not let any of its iPad apps run on Vision Pro. (This is also the case with the Mac App Store.) *That said, you can find very old Google apps — RIP MyGlass — that are no longer available under Purchased.