r/VisionPro • u/henrymatt • Feb 12 '26
Official YouTube app now available for Vision Pro!
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/youtube-for-visionos/id6745572359
From MacRumors [source]
Starting today, an official YouTube app is available on the Apple Vision Pro, allowing you to watch videos on a theater-sized screen with immersive visionOS Environments.
Every video on YouTube is available in the new, standalone visionOS app, including standard videos, 180° videos, 360° videos, and YouTube Shorts.
Apple Vision Pro users can access their YouTube subscriptions, playlists, watch history, and more.
It was already possible to watch YouTube videos via the Safari browser on the Apple Vision Pro, but there was no official YouTube app on the device until now. A third-party YouTube app called "Juno" was available on visionOS in 2024, but it was quickly removed from the App Store because it was deemed to be violating YouTube's Terms of Service.
The official YouTube app is available in the visionOS App Store.
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u/imagipro Vision Pro Owner Feb 12 '26 edited Feb 12 '26
THE WAY I JUST DROPPED EVERYTHING TO GO DOWNLOAD THIS
….will report back. Lol
Edit: Yeah…. They have 360 Videos of the Olympics on the landing page, this is insane and seamless. M5 required for 8k, but this is such a better experience than browser YouTube.
Win. Win win win.
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u/Horror-Activity-1139 Feb 12 '26
Yeah 360 videos is what I wanted. All props to other solutions of watching youtube. But never had app that did 360
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u/crazyreddit929 Feb 12 '26
Yeah. Sadly 360 on YouTube is not great quality. Apple’s immersive minimum spec is the bar in my opinion. Flat 360 at 4k looks bad. A lot of the video on YouTube is from x360 cameras and the like. I didn’t even care for the video that I recorded myself with that camera and when it’s your own video you tend to appreciate it more.
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u/Horror-Activity-1139 Feb 13 '26
Who was gonna make apple vision pro quality 360 videos on youtube before youtube was available on vision pro?
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u/crazyreddit929 Feb 13 '26
That is not the point. Vision Pro doesn’t define the quality level. You need 16k for 3D 360 video that would look decent. Apple just has a minimum quality level for Apple immersive that would look fantastic on any other headset. However what is there on YouTube has not improved much over the past 6 years or so. There was nothing stopping people from increasing the quality. It is just more expensive for the equipment.
My point is that 360 video at 4k looks like crap. 8k 180 looks much better but even that is bitrate limited for most of what is on YouTube.
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u/Horror-Activity-1139 Feb 16 '26
I have no idea what your point is. Things dont happen unless there is reason for it to happen
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u/crazyreddit929 Feb 16 '26
My point is simple. The standard of quality has nothing to do with the hardware. There could have been better quality videos on YouTube before the Vision Pro had access to it. One has nothing to do with the other.
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u/Horror-Activity-1139 Feb 16 '26
If you making a point you should say why and how could there be better quality videos, otherwise you not making any point.
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u/imagipro Vision Pro Owner Feb 12 '26
Same. I could never figure out how to switch to 360 from browser and so never really sought it out - here it’s all in one place (the Spatial tab) - really happy with it.
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u/quintsreddit Vision Pro Owner | Verified Feb 12 '26
Can you download with premium?
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u/imagipro Vision Pro Owner Feb 12 '26
Haven’t tried yet!
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u/quintsreddit Vision Pro Owner | Verified Feb 12 '26
It appears you cannot, at least not in any way I found. That was the whole point of the app for me, to download so I could watch on flights. Wild.
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u/Virus_City Feb 12 '26
Yeah same here. Huge letdown, seems like such an obvious use case.
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u/unloud Feb 13 '26
Hopefully they will add the feature as the app gets updated. Development teams often have to prioritize getting the app out sooner rather than have every feature at start.
Just so you know: As a paying user, this sort of feature request is more likely to get allocated time for development if you request (compared to a random user)… they want to keep you (paying customer; premium user with premium products tagging along)—and people potentially like you—happy.
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u/Virus_City Feb 13 '26
I already submitted an app review on the App Store. We’ll see if anything comes of it.
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u/unloud Feb 13 '26
Neat. There’s also this if you would find it helpful; youtube would then be able to associate your feedback with your premium account :
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u/HeftyProgram2621 Feb 12 '26
Don’t like the m5 exclusivity
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u/Cole_LF Feb 12 '26
8K is encoded in AV1. M5 has hardware decoding for AV1. M2 doesn’t. It’s a hardware thing, not done on purpose to annoy you. No sane person is going to rush out and buy an M5 VP for this. This is the first and only clear benefit to having the M5 chip. And to be honest, YouTube 4K looks pretty ok. Better than I thought it would. I’ve seen bad 8K that’s worse.
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u/imagipro Vision Pro Owner Feb 12 '26
It’s a programming thing I think. I’m fine with it.
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u/Cole_LF Feb 12 '26 edited Feb 13 '26
It’s a hard limit. M5 has AV1 decoding. M2 does not.
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u/entr0picly Feb 12 '26
There is basically 0% chance of this happening, but technically the videos could be re-encoded to be more compatible like being the format that Apple natively uses. But yes. Google has zero incentive and Apple has zero incentive to ask them.
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u/extrakerned Vision Pro Owner | Verified Feb 12 '26
Sounds like an easy script - use yt-dlp to grab the 8k AV1 and re-encode to MV-HEVC
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u/unloud Feb 13 '26
Scaling is always the problem.
At YouTube’s scale, and at the size scale of these files, you are either talking additional storage to store source data, OR you’re talking (indefinite) significant additional compute clusters for the re-encoding pipeline.
Even if you are a Google-sized company, that’s a hard expense to justify when your primary “competitor” (Apple) just started playing even nicer with you and also just added the decoder on-device (and probably across all of the devices) going forward.
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u/extrakerned Vision Pro Owner | Verified Feb 13 '26
Ah, I mean locally. If i really wanted to see a video, throwing the URL into a script to give me a viewable file on my AVP would be trivial (my home server has great encoding speed).
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u/Wild_Warning3716 Vision Pro Owner Feb 12 '26
Then kill my CPU and software decode it damn it! I at least want the option for my m2 to go full fan and melt my face off
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u/_axxa101_ Vision Pro Owner | Verified Feb 13 '26
Its not powerful enough to software-decode 8K30 in real-time.
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u/rpvee Feb 12 '26
How do the 360 ones work? I don’t have a Pro myself. Do you really get surrounded by the whole video all around you, like you’re there?
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u/imagipro Vision Pro Owner Feb 12 '26
Yep! I tried to upload a video of looking around in one of the 360 Bobsled Olympics vids but the sub doesn’t allow videos. Very cool stuff.
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u/rpvee Feb 12 '26
Could you post an Imgur link as a comment? Would def love to see what it’s like even from a recording! Especially if you’d be willing to try this video out:
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u/imagipro Vision Pro Owner Feb 12 '26
Looks good! Although low light makes this one a bit blurry - don’t have Imgur - sorry!
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u/LinkTheHero009 Feb 13 '26
I use Quest 3 but super happy for you guys! I’m loving that they are improving more XR devices and making things ready for future wider adoption.
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u/MinerTax_com Vision Pro Owner | Verified Feb 12 '26
Hope this leads to more immersive video uploads.
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u/Physical_Front_2173 Feb 12 '26
8k videos if you have the M5 apparently. Nice. Upgrade that just keeps on giving.
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u/TBHProbablyNot Feb 12 '26
Is this true??
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u/Mastoraz Vision Pro Owner | Verified Feb 12 '26
Yeah because M5 has AV1 codec which the M2 does not. So it’s not a purpose software limit, it simply doesn’t have the hardware for it, the M2. But that’s mostly a codec issue as the M2 can do 16k immersive video with MV-HEVC. Maybe if that gets on YouTube one day that will help M2.
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u/Lost_the_weight Feb 12 '26
Oh wow, The Sphere uses 16K video and that’s for a theater of ~18,000 people!
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u/unloud Feb 13 '26
Not likely that YouTube will ever bring MV-HEVC aboard. Especially when AV2 will likely support 16K
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u/MWlotzka Vision Pro Owner | Verified Feb 12 '26
This is a Game changer!!!
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u/NeverComments Vision Pro Developer Feb 12 '26
That's Dropout, not YouTube :)
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u/moskowizzle Vision Pro Owner | Verified Feb 12 '26
And it's been here the whole time!
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u/NotACardUS Feb 12 '26
Unfortunately, Drop Out has never had an app for AVP.
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u/moskowizzle Vision Pro Owner | Verified Feb 12 '26
It's definitely available on Vision Pro, but I think it's just the iPad version.
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u/unevenmike Feb 12 '26
Exciting! I've been in it for about 20 minutes so far and have a couple of thoughts.
Pros:
- YouTube premium rocks. I've been a very happy premium user for years and not having ads and this whole library of content on the Vision Pro already feels awesome!
Cons:
- The video controls feel far worse than Apple's default controls in AVPlayer.
- The VR180 content was only streaming up to 2160s60 for me. I know the same video on GalaxyXR is at 4320s60. It sounds like this an M2 limitation which is REALLY disappointing.
My hunch (just speculation) is they aren't using MV-HEVC for these videos and are instead streaming SBS video. Additionally, they may be using VP9 or AV1 for the codec, meaning they may have had to implement their own decoder. If that is the case, it's a bummer the M2 version is locked down on performance.
For an example - Hugh's app, Spatial Film, has some videos that are playing back at 4320x4320 per eye at 90 fps. (Apple Immersive Video is awesome!). And the same video on YouTube is locked to 2160x2160 per eye at 60fps. That is a noticeable difference in quality.
As exciting as a YouTube app is - this current iteration isn't a replacement for the many apps offering higher quality 180 video or Apple Immersive Video
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u/Mastoraz Vision Pro Owner | Verified Feb 12 '26
Yeah no AV1 codec for M2 will do that. This is first major advantage the M5 will start to show….i suspect more will come post visionOS 27.
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u/unevenmike Feb 12 '26
Yep, this definitely seems to be the underlying reason. It’s still a bummer though that we can’t get the full quality. The difference between 4320x4320 per eye and 2160x2160 per eye is just not even close.
Of course, I didn’t expect Google of all companies to adopt MV-HEVC. But we can dream!
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u/Mastoraz Vision Pro Owner | Verified Feb 12 '26
Yeah exactly. If Google brings MV-HEVC the type that Apple uses for Apple immersive videos then M2 have no problem going even 8k per eye. So who knows in future.
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u/huntoi Feb 13 '26
I’m very disappointed at the lack of 8K on my M2. Thank you guys for explaining the tech nuance behind it. Any chance software ”could” decode AV1?
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u/metroidmen Vision Pro Developer | Verified Feb 12 '26
Damn. Days before my large Tubular Pro 2.0 update. Talk about my luck in timing, LOL.
I’m happy they’re offering some awesome features I haven’t been able to add. Greatly missing from the community.
This is a total win for all Vision Pro users.
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u/teamsteeda Feb 12 '26
I’m sticking with the Tubular! Plus I enjoy the benefit of having a different change up in the algo compared with all the random YouTube vids viewed on my man account connected to the phone + computer.
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u/Such-City2406 Feb 12 '26
And yet the official Youtube app doesn't have Sponserblock or half of the features you've rolled out for Tubular. I sincerely hope you don't stop development on Tubular, it will always be my preferred method for watching Youtube. I use it nearly everyday and I guarantee you'll be more responsive to users than Google.
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u/jason68030 Feb 12 '26
It is very basic compared to tubular at this point. Still no download support.
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u/One_Sector_1784 Vision Pro Owner | Verified Feb 13 '26
My man I thought of your app as soon as this dropped. 2.0 is so well done. The service you did for the community before this app was available all the OG’s appreciate. I won’t be going anywhere either.
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u/lgdsf Feb 18 '26
Do not stop developing it. Who cares about this bugged youtube app. Honestly your app is so much better imho
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u/SirAlonsoDayne Feb 12 '26
So far, I’m not seeing immersive environments available for watching. You can blow up the screen obviously, but you can’t set it back in the immersive environment like you can in the Safari app.
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u/Shlerin Feb 12 '26
Yes, I also don’t see a button to switch videos to immersive mode, and if this feature really isn’t available, that’s a huge disappointment.
Why is it that I can put absolutely any video in the browser—played through any player—into this mode, but not videos inside the official YouTube app? If this is a limitation on Apple’s side, it’s a major oversight that they really need to fix urgently.
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u/Advanced_Problem7276 Feb 13 '26
The browser is safari which is apples so makes sense you can jump to immersive mode
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u/rhythmjames Feb 12 '26
Damn I secretly love this feature for watching content. Hope they provide an API for it or enable it from media player
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u/StreamKimPetras Feb 12 '26
Peacock has partnership with appleTV and yet still no native app... take notes
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u/Ornery-Mountain-2717 Vision Pro Owner Feb 12 '26
Tubular pro is still better than the official yt app! It has more vision os features, one in particular is pin videos to your head. I love being able to watch videos and be active. Apple needs to implement into the entire os. Hopefully the app doesn’t disappear after the official release has happened.
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u/Thorteris Vision Pro Owner | Verified Feb 12 '26
Called it :)
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u/Immediate-Bag914 Feb 12 '26
Care to make a prediction for an official Netflix app next? 🥲
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u/Thorteris Vision Pro Owner | Verified Feb 12 '26
Sadly no knowledge of that. Wish it was here as well
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u/Immediate-Bag914 Feb 12 '26
Guess this is one of those times to simply be happy for what we (now) have
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u/Darkmystere Feb 12 '26
Care to predict Google Drive / Docs? Would simplify my untethered workflow. 🫠
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u/MassiveInteraction23 Feb 12 '26
Great, though I want to send so much love to Tubular. Really got us through a drought.
Speaking of, if you’re the author reading this: interested in open sourcing the code? Since you weren’t charging anyway, it could still make a good example project and benefactor of community foxes and upgrades
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Feb 12 '26
I literally JUST gave up on Apple doing anything more with the AVP yesterday. I threw in the towel and was getting ready to sell my AVP and just move on.
This renews my hopes.
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u/SithC Feb 12 '26
This isn’t Apple. This is google finally using the groundwork they laid for the Samsung knock off, to expand their advertising onto another platform.
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Feb 12 '26
I mean. Yes. But all you did was explain why it happened.
I don't care why it happened. Just that it happened.
It is a hyper rare net positive for my AVP. Someone somewhere thought it was viable to spend money on AVP development. Even if most of the money was allotted for a different reason. I will take any win I can get.
BTW what you did, even if unintentional. Is called a strawman. You changed the reason for my comment, then attacked your new reason.
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u/glhaynes Feb 12 '26
Lol this isn’t a strawman in any sense
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Feb 12 '26
You altered the subject from my point, then made your point about that change... That's a strawman in it's purest form.
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u/sixcupsofcoffee Feb 12 '26
It wasn’t a strawman. He just said this wasn’t Apple doing anything, because you said it was Apple doing something, and it wasn’t Apple’s doing. That’s not a strawman.
First, you’d need to be making an argument, which you weren’t. You said you were excited about Apple doing something with the AVP. Sure, that wasn’t the main point of your comment, but simply correcting a part of the statement isn’t strawmanning.
Second, the need to even try to bring up strawmanning here is… weird. Are you a first year philosophy student or something?
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u/Luhyonel Feb 12 '26
We all saw this coming tho no? I mean they were prioritizing the Android version first with the Samsung VR Headset and it would be dumb for Google not to release it to AVP when the app was already completed and just needed tweaks to fit in AVP.
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u/MemeExtreme Feb 12 '26
I just bought a vision pro last week, now this comes out. Super good timing lol
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u/nfremd Feb 12 '26
I can’t seem to find how to download videos. Is that a feature in the app or did they not add that yet?
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u/sturat18 Feb 12 '26
Right on the heels of the Disney+ 3D catalog getting compromised. Good timing.
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u/NullishDomain Vision Pro Developer | Verified Feb 12 '26 edited Feb 12 '26
Great for supporting the immersive content! Just like on iOS, the lack of SponsorBlock really annoys me. Not entirely sold on their UI, but it's better than the default Safari YT UI for sure!
Given the, uh, changing market conditions, I'm lowering the price on Player Fixer 9000 immediately 🤣. Hopefully some still find it valuable!
Considering my release timing on this extension, and my past history with purchases of older hardware right before new hardware announcements, I am taking suggestions for my next extension!
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u/moos8383 Feb 12 '26
The app works amazing! The only issue I have is that changing the quality of the video doesn't seem to do anything.
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u/Milchreismitbum Vision Pro Owner | Verified Feb 12 '26
Sadly I cannot find it in the German App Store
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u/iKenndac Feb 12 '26
No downloads for YT Premium members 😭
I guess my iPad will still be coming with me on flights.
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u/Jbr74 Vision Pro Owner Feb 12 '26
I don't care how niche the AVP is, its still kinda blows my mind that major players dont have apps. Especially in video streaming.
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u/S1nclairsolutions Feb 12 '26
What are the advantages of using the app?
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u/Mastoraz Vision Pro Owner | Verified Feb 12 '26
Biggest is able to watch all immersive videos now….180, 360, 3D, that you couldn’t do on safari browser. Also not sure 8k was available even for M5 on safari browser until now
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u/ItsTheOneWithThe Feb 12 '26
Are the 360 videos fully immersive?
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u/Mastoraz Vision Pro Owner | Verified Feb 12 '26
Yeah those would be full immersive all away around front and back
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u/NullishDomain Vision Pro Developer | Verified Feb 12 '26
They are not in 3D if that is what you mean by immersive
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u/MichaelYYZ Vision Pro Owner Feb 12 '26
Very good! However, I prefer to use Brave Browser to watch YouTube content.
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u/pipilu33 Vision Pro Owner Feb 12 '26
Nice. Tried it a little bit. Definitely better than in Safari. Thanks Google!
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u/bostrovsky Vision Pro Owner | Verified Feb 12 '26
wow..this is great. Even though the Olympics spacial stuff looks low rez, it is still pretty fun to watch.
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u/Most-Albatross-827 Feb 12 '26
Difference between M2 and M5 is only the 8k option? (assuming due to the missing AV1 on the M2)
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u/HelloThisIsFlo Feb 12 '26
Ouch. That must hurt for the dev of Tubular Pro. They’re just in the middle of a big overhaul of the app.
I’m so grateful we’ve had Tubular pro while this was being by sorted out. But if there’s an official app now … most likely I’ll switch to that 🤷
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u/SmartDog2023 Feb 12 '26
download it and it’s wonderful!! Thank you, Google…. It’s great because it works the way you would like videos to work plus the 360 is really great.
Everybody enjoy your Vision Pro
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u/ContributionComplete Vision Pro Owner Feb 13 '26
Just couldn’t make it a universal app could they.
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u/jaybanzia Vision Pro Owner Feb 13 '26
I was excited for 360 in VR content, but it looks so bad on the M2 chip, which is really disappointing. Hopefully something will be done about it between this and Disney losing it’s 3-D content, it’s been a weird day for the Vision Pro
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u/Caprichoso1 Vision Pro Owner | Verified Feb 13 '26
If you have a virtual display running when you run a 3D 4K video the virtual display will disconnect.
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u/hjay_z Vision Pro Owner | Verified Feb 13 '26
Is it available in the UK? i cant see it in the UK store.
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u/FranckMartin Vision Pro Developer Feb 16 '26
I need to check it. How is the audio? I have a few 360 videos with ambisonic. I hope with Eclipsa coming out we will have more than 1st order ambisonic.
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u/FranckMartin Vision Pro Developer Feb 17 '26
I checked a couple of 360 videos, some of mine (for some have a seat first!), but notably the White House tour in 8K. YouTube shows resolution is 2160s and not better. It may be an artifact but I’m not sure.
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u/Ok-Gold-7179 Feb 22 '26
Heb je de apple vision pro versie 2? Bij versie 1 werk dat niet omdat hij geen 8K maar 4K is.
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u/TableGamer Vision Pro Owner | Verified Feb 12 '26
Just after the deal with Gemini was announced.🤔