Although Apple’s popular Vision Pro headset is not available for purchase, the company is making sure that users will have plenty of apps to use when they finally get it. The company said today that iPhone and iPad apps will appear in the VisionOS App Store on launch day.
This means that developers will not have to do additional work to port their existing applications. Apple said this fall it will release a developer beta of VisionOS including the App Store.
“By default, your iPad and/or iPhone apps will automatically be published to the App Store on Apple Vision Pro. Most of the frameworks available in iPadOS and iOS are also included in VisionOS, which means that almost all iPad and iPhone apps can run on VisionOS, without modification. Customers will be able to use your apps on VisionOS early next year when Apple Vision Pro becomes available He said in another.
Apple announced the Vision Pro headset at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June. Later that month, the company released the Vision Pro SDK for developers to tinker with various elements of VisionOS. In July, Apple began accepting requests for a loan release of the Development Kit. The company also hosted in person Vision Pro development labs In Cupertino, London, Munich, Shanghai, Singapore and Tokyo.
While iPhone and iPad apps will appear on the VisionOS App Store automatically, developers can use the SDK to add 3D elements and support hand gestures to make apps “look more natural” on the device, the Cupertino-based tech giant said.
In a recent interview with Digital trendsSteve Sinclair, Apple Vision Pro’s senior director of product marketing, said the number of SDK downloads “exceeded” the company’s expectations.
However, due to the limited location of developer labs for personal experimentation and the restricted development tools software, many developers have to work with the simulator most of the time. To have a broad range of apps that provide different experiences, Apple “will need to achieve that,” Sinclair said [the Vision Pro] “Available to every one of our developers.”