TikTok’s native app arrives for the Vision Pro

Apple’s Vision Pro headset now has a native TikTok app, the shortform video service has announced. 

The interface will look relatively familiar to anyone who has used TikTok’s traditional iOS or Android apps, with a vertically oriented player for videos as well as buttons to like, comment, favorite, and share. But the company has taken advantage of the increased screen real estate offered by the Vision Pro to spread out other interface elements, showing comments and creator profiles on a pane to the right so they don’t obscure the main video player.

TikTok teased the launch of its Vision Pro app last month, when product lead Ahmad Zahran wrote that his team had “redesigned the entire TikTok experience from the ground up” for the headset. On the Vision Pro, it’s possible to watch TikTok videos with your real-world surroundings still visible or in a fully virtual location like the surface of the Moon, and it’ll also work alongside other apps in the headset.

Support from major video streaming services for Apple’s shiny new hardware has been mixed. At one extreme, Disney has been a key partner, offering the ability to stream 3D movies on the Vision Pro via Disney Plus, and Apple has also announced support from the likes of Amazon Prime Video, Paramount Plus, Mubi, and Discovery Plus.

At the other end of the spectrum, both Netflix and YouTube have opted against even allowing their iPad apps to run on the headset in a compatibility mode and have instead pointed users toward watching their services via the Safari browser. But YouTube, which has increasingly tried to compete with TikTok via its YouTube Shorts service, has recently confirmed that a Vision Pro app is on its roadmap.