YouTube and Spotify will not offer standalone apps for the Apple Vision Pro when the device launches on February 2, according to a report. The company’s first new hardware category in nearly a decade is scheduled to arrive in the US in the coming days, but it will reportedly ship without support for three of the most popular video and audio streaming platforms — YouTube, Spotify, and Netflix. Customers who have active subscriptions might be able to watch content via the built-in Safari browser, with certain limitations.
The Alphabet-owned streaming platform told Bloomberg in a statement on Thursday that the company has no plans — for now — to launch a dedicated app for the Apple Vision Pro. Apple also lets developers allow users to access the iPad version of their apps on the mixed reality headset, but this will not be an option for YouTube users, according to the company.
Meanwhile, the publication also reports that popular music streaming platform Spotify will also neither offer a standalone streaming app for the Vision Pro, nor will it allow users to access the iPad app on the headset, citing a person familiar with the matter. With over 600 million users and 30 percent market share, the absence of Spotify on the platform is likely to be felt by Vision Pro owners.
It is worth noting that both services could eventually roll out support for the Apple Vision Pro, with dedicated apps that run on visionOS, the operating system designed by Apple to run apps optimised for the mixed reality headset. The companies could also simply offer their existing iPad apps, which are regularly updated, on the Vision Pro.
Until that happens, users of both platforms who purchase the Apple Vision Pro headset, priced at $3,499 (roughly Rs. 2,91,000), will have to access YouTube and Spotify via the built-in Safari browser. The lack of standalone apps from these platforms will also mean that users won’t have access to immersive ‘Environments’ around the content they are watching.
When the headset launches in the US on February 2, customers will have access to several streaming apps and services, including Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, ESPN, and Apple TV+. You can read the full list of supported streaming services here. Apple also announced that customers will be able to view bought or rented movies in 2D and 3D using the mixed reality headset.