TikTok launches a ‘reimagined’ app for the Apple Vision Pro

TikTok has launched a native and “reimagined” app on the Apple Vision Pro, the company announced on Thursday. The Vision Pro launched on February 2 and already has over 1,000 apps specifically designed for the new device, and now one of the most popular social platforms is one of them. Although you could watch TikTok videos via your browser on the Vision Pro, the new native app allows for a more immersive viewing experience.

In the TikTok Vision Pro app, the navigation bar and like button are moved off-screen to allow for full-video viewing, while the comment section and creator profiles appear as expansions on the side of the feed.

When you click on the comments section on the mobile app, they appear on top of the video, and clicking on someone’s profile takes you to a full page. However, with the Vision Pro, you can view all of these things at once. TikTok says that since the Vision Pro gets rid of screen size and spatial boundaries, it allows for a much more immersive content experience. As a result, you can watch a video while scrolling through comments without having your view cut off, unlike on the mobile app.

The app lets you watch TikTok videos in immersive locations, like in Yosemite or on the moon. It also works with the device’s Shared Space feature, which means you can watch TikTok videos while working on other apps.

On the mobile app, the navigation bar is on the right, but on the Vision Pro app, the navigation bar has been moved to the left. TikTok says it made the change in order to align with Apple Vision Pro design best practices. The profile, share, like, comments and sound icons are all on the right.

The launch of the new app comes a few weeks after a product leader at TikTok confirmed that the company was developing the app.

At launch, the Apple Vision Pro had 600-plus apps designed for the headset, including Slack, Zoom, Microsoft 365 apps and Disney+. Earlier this week, Apple senior vice president of worldwide marketing, Greg Joswiak, revealed that the Vision Pro now has more than 1,000 apps designed specifically for it. While the Vision Pro can run more than 1.5 million compatible iOS and iPad apps, spatial apps built for the headset have been designed to leverage its specific capabilities.

It makes sense for TikTok to want to provide a spatial app specifically designed for the headset, especially since other entertainment/video apps like Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video have done so. YouTube, which is one of TikTok’s biggest competitors, has said a Vision Pro app is “on the roadmap” but hasn’t provided a specific timeline. By launching its app first, TikTok has a bit of an advantage over YouTube.