Current State of Content and Software Support

I still think there’s significant room to grow, but the content situation is better than ever. It’s not enough to keep you entertained for hours a day, but it’s enough to make putting on the headset for a bit once a week or so worth it. That wasn’t there a year ago.

The software support situation is in a similar state.

App Support is Mostly Frozen in the Year 2024

Many of us have a suite of go-to apps that are foundational to our individual approaches to daily productivity. For me, primarily a macOS user, they are:

• Firefox
• Spark
• Todoist
• Obsidian
• Raycast
• Slack
• Visual Studio Code
• Claude
• 1Password

Availability of Apps on visionOS

As you can see, I don’t use most of Apple’s built-in apps—no Safari, no Mail, no Reminders, no Passwords, no Notes… no Spotlight, even. All that may be atypical, but it has never been a problem on macOS, nor has it been on iOS for a few years now.

Impressively, almost all of these are available on visionOS—but only because it can run iPad apps as flat, virtual windows. Firefox, Spark, Todoist, Obsidian, Slack, 1Password, and even Raycast are all available as supported iPad apps, but surprisingly, Claude isn’t, even though there is a Claude app for iPads. (ChatGPT’s iPad app works, though.) VS Code isn’t available, of course, but I wasn’t expecting it to be.

Lack of Native Apps

Not a single one of these applications has a true visionOS app. That’s too bad, because I can think of lots of neat things spatial computing versions could do. Imagine browsing your Obsidian graph in augmented reality! Alas, I can only dream.

Limitations for Users of Built-in Apps

If you’re not such a huge productivity software geek like me and you use Apple’s built-in apps, things look a little better, but surprisingly, there are still a few apps that you would imagine would have really cool spatial computing features—like Apple Maps—that don’t. Maps, too, is just an iPad app.

Conclusion

In conclusion, while the content situation has improved, there is still significant room for growth. The software support situation is also limited, with many apps only available as iPad apps and not as native visionOS apps. This lack of native apps limits the potential of spatial computing and augmented reality features.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the current state of content on visionOS?

The content situation on visionOS is better than ever, but it’s still not enough to keep you entertained for hours a day.

Are my favorite apps available on visionOS?

Many apps are available on visionOS, but only as iPad apps, not as native visionOS apps. This means they may not have the full range of spatial computing features.

Will the software support situation improve?

It is likely that the software support situation will improve over time as more developers create native visionOS apps. However, for now, the selection of apps is limited.