10 tips every Apple Vision Pro user should know

apple vision pro is one Animal Of a machine. By putting an M5 chip under the hood – a 3-nanometer processor with a 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU and 16-core Neural Engine – Apple completely outshines the M3 and M4, delivering more raw power in your face than most people can handle. But like any high-performance machine, you’ve got to tune it and run it right to get the most out of what’s under the hood. Whether you’ve owned it since launch or just unboxed it, these ten hacks will help you get the most out of your Apple Vision Pro. There are some simple adjustments, some deeper dives, but all of them are worth your time.

Access Vision Pro’s “Hidden” Settings

Apple is going for a specific aesthetic with the Vision Pro UI, so there aren’t as many things to customize in the “Settings” menu as you’d like, but there are plenty of useful adjustments hidden in the Accessibility menu. These settings are designed for users with dexterity, visual or hearing impairments, but anyone may prefer the zoom feature or modification of the Digital Crown’s click speed.

Here’s what I changed via the Accessibility menu in my Vision Pro:

You may be interested in the same settings or other settings presented here, so take a look at the Accessibility menu to see what works for you. Pro Tip: You can triple-click the Digital Crown to quickly turn accessibility features on and off.

The latest update to VisionOS added spatial widgets so you can pin information to places where it makes the most sense — put a timer next to your stove for cooking, for example, or the weather and news right near the front door. But if you have a Matter-compatible smart home device, you can take widgets to the next level with Apple Home. This app lets you pin controls for things like your air conditioner and lighting where you want, so you can stick a “Night Mode” button above your bed and turn everything off with one click when the day is over. If you want to take it further, download widgetsmith And customize the look of smart home controls. Once you pin a widget, it will stay there until you move it or delete it, even when you restart.

Use “Connect to Server” for unlimited storage

With VisionOS, you can Connect to a local server on your networkSuch as your PC or Mac, or a cloud storage provider, and access files without saving them to your headset. This is a great way to work with larger files without filling up your Vision Pro’s storage – especially if you opted for the base 256GB. To set this up, you’ll need to allow sharing on the remote computer, then go to “Files” within Vision Pro, enter your server’s host name or network address, then select “Connect.” Depending on the server, you can join as a guest, or you can enter your username and password, and you’re good to go.

Use settings and mirroring to securely share the Vision Pro experience

The biggest disadvantage of AR and VR is the inability to say “take a look at this!” And show it to your friend. The Apple Vision Pro’s Guest User Mode isn’t quite the same, but it’s at least an easier and quicker way to handle your headset. This is how it works:

• Go to Control Center.

• Pinch “Guest User”.

• Hand over your headset and the Vision Pro will run a quick set-up and calibration, then open up what you were watching while protecting your private data.

• When you put the headset back on, your original calibration will be restored.

If you don’t want to share your headset completely, you can still share your view. AirPlay Mirroring lets others see what you’re watching on their phone or other device. You can broadcast your scene to any nearby iPad, Mac, or AirPlay-compatible TV that shares the WiFi network with your Vision Pro. This is how it works:

• On your headset, go to Control Center and select the “Mirror My View” icon (it looks like two overlapping squares).

• You should see a list of any compatible devices on your network. Choose what you want to stream on.

• If you don’t see a device, you may need to turn on the AirPlay receiver (found in System Settings > General > AirDrop & Handoff On and within macOS apple vision pro app on iOS).

Use “Gaussian Splats” to create 3D virtual spaces you can move around

One of the standout features of Vision Pro is the device’s ability to instantly upgrade existing 2D images and transform them into spatial 3D images. You simply open the photo gallery, select a picture, and click the “Spatial” and/or immersion icons and it instantly gives depth to your photos. But this is only the first level of 3D you can achieve.

Third-party apps like Spatial Media Toolkit And spatial video studio Lets you control parameters like depth of field, crop for the best 3D effect, and save in formats that can be viewed outside Vision Pro. It includes anaglyph, so you can watch pictures with those old 3D glasses; Side-by-side 3D, so you can watch them in a VR headset or on a 3D TV; and “wiggle” videos that anyone can watch by shaking their device slightly, such as:

But if you want to go even deeper, Apple Vision Pro is an amazing tool for viewing and creating Gaussian splats. This cutting-edge technology creates 3D models by stretching, rotating, and positioning millions of small, colorful, and transparent 3D “blobs” (Gaussians). While spatial photos add AI-assisted depth, “splats” allow you to capture 3D versions of real objects, save them, and walk around them. You can also scan 3D space move around in it.

Gaussian splats capture lighting really well, but add a weird, unrealistic “blobbiness” to physical objects (the technique isn’t entirely in the right place). But the light and reflection are evocative in a way that is hard to describe. Gaussian splashes of familiar places feel like walking into a hazy memory. If your parents had one, you can walk around in a digital replica of your childhood bedroom. If you scan your kids with it, you’ll get a weird, fuzzy digital baby that will never grow up. This is not very difficult to do. You can use apps like Scaniverse Or polycam On your phone to scan a room or object in different ways, you can then export it to your Vision Pro and experience it in 3D through the same apps on your Vision Pro. Bonus: PolyCam lets you explore captures from users around the world, including large-scale scans of things like cathedrals.

Use your Vision Pro as a gaming device

Gaming has never been a focus of the Vision Pro – which is a shame, as it’s such a powerful machine – but it looks like that’s changing. VisionOS 26.4 latest update NVIDIA CloudXR 6.0 introducedA native streaming framework that allows the headset to act as a monitor while another computer handles the number crunching.

The first high-profile games are playable through the new framework iRacing And x-plane 12. I don’t have a PC so I couldn’t test it, but here are Instructions from NVIDIA How to take it forward?

However, if you are a Mac user you are not completely deprived of high-end gaming. VisionOS now supports NVIDIA GeForce Now So you can stream games directly from NVIDIA’s data centers. The bad news: The best stuff will cost a subscription fee. This is how it works:

• Pair a Bluetooth game controller to your Apple Vision Pro.

• Open Safari on your Vision Pro and go to play.geforcenow.com.

• You should be able to play any of your games on Steam that are also on NVIDIA’s platform.

• Free membership gives you hours of game time without having to wait in line. If you’re looking forward toultimate membership“For $19.99 per month, you’ll get to the front of the line, and you’ll unlock Vision Pro’s 4K/90 fps cloud mode, which gives you better performance than most consoles without a single wire.

they are Officer Gaming options. If you want to be a hacker and hang out outside of Apple’s grow garden, you can play OpenVR games streamed from your gaming computer to your Vision Pro ALVR. But it is not for the faint of heart. Running ALVR requires specific network and software configuration and a certain degree of technical knowledge. If you want to try it, Here are the official instructions To set up the app on your PC.

Keep Vision Pro Awake with Post-it Notes

This hack doesn’t require any technical ability, and it’s pretty clever. The Apple Vision Pro is designed to go into sleep mode as soon as you take it off, but if there’s a reason you want to keep the display on, you can defeat the auto-sleep sensor with a simple Post-it note. Slide it over your eye when the headset is off, then you can keep your headset on while you sleep, like this:

Credit: Stephen Johnson

Actually it has some uses. VisionOS often pauses active tasks like file transfers in the idle state, so if you’re transferring a large file, it may keep it running even when you’re headset-less. Also: If you’re running something with a fragile connection, like the ALVR mentioned above, it would theoretically be more likely that you maintain your connection.

If your Vision Pro is unresponsive use the physical buttons to force quit it

If a Vision Pro app becomes unresponsive, you can force quit it with the physical buttons. Unlike clicking the “X” to close an app, force quitting completely terminates the running process. This is how it works:

• Press and hold both the Digital Crown and the top button.

• Wait for the menu of open apps to appear.

• Click on the app you want to end.

Create an UltraWide Virtual Display for Your MacBook

You can turn your MacBook into a wrap-around workstation with infinite screen real estate, and it’s very easy:

• Make sure your computer and the Vision Pro are both on the same network, and both have Bluetooth and Keychain enabled.

• Then simply look at your open MacBook while wearing the headset. A “Connect” button will float at the top of the screen.

• Pinch it, and you’ll have a virtual screen that can be much larger. You can expand to a 32:9 panoramic display that wraps around you. You get the equivalent of two 5K monitors side by side at a coffee shop or while sitting on an airplane. So cold.

Look for hidden Easter eggs in the Vision Pro environment

The Vision Pro environment is much more than a static background. They are highly detailed, animated sight and sound landscapes full of small details and supposedly mysterious rare encounters. There’s a kind of mythology about some of these events, because they’re hard to pin down, so anyone can say they saw or heard something – like the Roadrunner or the gunshot at White Sands or Bigfoot at Mount Hood. They’re questionable, but there are some confirmed, or at least plausible, environmental Easter eggs that suggest you might find something:

• Haleakala:If you shout loud enough in this environment, you can hear an echo. it has been confirmed.

• Mount Hood (Dynamic Weather):If it’s raining in your actual physical location, the Mount Hood environment will often reflect those conditions. Users have also reported seeing light raindrops falling on the “glass” of their open app windows.

• Keynote’s hidden environment: If you open the “Keynote” app in your Vision Pro and open a presentation, one of your options will be “Rehearsal.” You will have two options, a boardroom and a theatre. This theater is an exact replica of the Steve Jobs Theater. This has also been confirmed.