The Vision Pro will run a brand new Operating System (OS) designed for spatial computing, called visionOS.
Developers who are interested in making their apps available for the Vision Pro will need to adapt their apps to the new OS, which builds on existing Apple OS with some new mixed-reality-focused considerations.
App design for visionOS will involve a set of spatial design ‘building blocks’, including:
- Windows – one or more screens showing content within the app. These will support 3D content, as well as traditional views and controls.
- Volumes – the third dimension of visionOS app design, used to add visual depth to app content.
- Spaces – in visionOS, apps can either run in ‘the Shared Space’ (a desktop-like state) alongside other apps; or in a dedicated ‘Full Space’, where the user can be fully immersed within a particular app.
Starting this July, app developers will have options to start working with Apple on visionOS projects. These will include:
- Request a visionOS compatibility evaluation for an existing app, via App Review. This will help you to see how the app would look and work on a Vision Pro headset (from July 2023).
- Experiment with your immersive app at a Vision Pro Developer Lab. Details on this opportunity are scarce at the moment, but we do know that the Labs will be opening this summer in London, Munich, Shanghai, Singapore, Tokyo and Cupertino.
- Apple plans on providing Vision Pro Developer Kits for developers. Meanwhile, the visionOS SDK is set to become available at some point this month (June 2023).
Apple has published guidance for developers on how to prepare for visionOS, covering numerous topics from gesture recognition to spatial audio. Time to get reading, fellow app developers!