Jason Hiner/ZDNET
If you’re jumping in on the Vision Pro excitement and already picturing yourself relaxing with your favorite TV shows, you might be a little disappointed when you head to the App Store.
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While you’ll be able to stream content from Disney+, Amazon Prime, Max, Paramount Plus, and more, you won’t find a Netflix app for the headset. The same goes for YouTube and Spotify.
Entertainment is a big selling point of Apple’s new $3,500 device, but the biggest streaming service won’t be present – at least not easily. Users will be able to watch Netflix through the built-in Safari browser, but that’s going to take away from some of the immersion. It also means users won’t be able to download content for offline viewing.
It’s worth noting that while the Netflix app is the same across the board, the company actually has different resolution caps for different browsers – for example, devices running macOS 11.0 or later can watch 4K content in Safari but ChromeOS is capped at 1080p. That means there’s a chance that Vision Pro users won’t have full 4K content.
YouTube and Spotify also will be browser-only.
Not only did all three companies decline to make a specific app for the Vision Pro, but both decided to make the existing iPad versions compatible as some other streaming services did. Exactly why Netflix and YouTube chose to skip out isn’t clear.
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So, what apps will be available on the Vision Pro? According to Apple’s website, popular services like Apple Music, Mindfulness, Notes, Messages, Photos, Safari, Shortcuts, Freeform, and Keynote will be ready the moment you set up the headset.
As for yesterday’s launch, Apple executives made a big deal out of movie watching, promising the Vision Pro would get special 3D content on Disney+ at launch, plus support from ESPN, Peacock, TikTok, Discovery Plus, and many other major services. Other 3D movies available for rent include Avatar: The Way of Water, Avengers: Endgame, Elemental, Encanto, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and more.
Making Spotify browser-only is tolerable, as listening to music or podcasts isn’t necessarily a big draw. Making YouTube more difficult to access is more of a bummer even though there isn’t content specific to the Vision Pro. But missing potential content from Netflix is a pretty glaring omission and one that could very well lead users to choose other streaming services first.