While Apple’s famed Vision Pro headset is not available for purchase, the company is making sure that users get plenty of apps to use when they finally get it. The company said today that iPhone and iPad apps will show up on the visionOS’ App Store on the launch day.
This means developers won’t have to do extra work to port their existing apps. Apple said that this fall, it will release a developer beta version of the visionOS including the App Store.
“By default, your iPad and/or iPhone apps will be published automatically on the App Store on Apple Vision Pro. Most frameworks available in iPadOS and iOS are also included in visionOS, which means nearly all iPad and iPhone apps can run on visionOS, unmodified. Customers will be able to use your apps on visionOS early next year when Apple Vision Pro becomes available,” the company said in a post.
Apple announced the Vision Pro headset at the Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) in June. Later that month, the company released the Vision Pro SDK for developers to play around with different elements of the visionOS. In July, Apple started accepting applications for issuing a developer kit on loan. The company has also been hosting in-person developer labs for Vision Pro in Cupertino, London, Munich, Shanghai, Singapore, and Tokyo.
The Cupertino-based tech giant said that while iPhone and iPad apps will show up on the VisionOS App Store automatically, developers can use the SDK to add 3D elements and support for hand gestures to make the apps “feel more natural” on the device.
In a recent interview with Digital Trends, Steve Sinclair, senior director of product marketing for Apple Vision Pro said that the number of SDK downloads has “exceeded” the company’s expectations.
However, because of the limited location of developer labs for in-person experience and a constrained dev kit program, a lot of developers have to work with the simulator most of the time. Sinclair said that to have a vast array of apps providing different experiences, Apple will “need to make it [the Vision Pro] accessible to every single one of our developers.”
