Want to Watch Netflix on Your Vision Pro? That May Be Complicated

When Apple’s Vision Pro launches to the public next month, it will have access to hundreds of immersive 3D movies and unique experiences from some of the top streaming apps — except for one that doesn’t seem to be interested in joining the party.

Earlier this week, Apple gave us a preview of all the new “entertainment experiences” coming to the Vision Pro. In addition to the 150 3D Spatial Movies that will be available through the Apple TV app, it’s also announced that users will have access to top streaming services, “including Disney+, ESPN, NBA, MLB, PGA Tour, Max, Discovery+, Amazon Prime Video, Paramount+, Peacock, Pluto TV, Tubi, Fubo, Crunchyroll, Red Bull TV, IMAX, TikTok, and the 2023 App Store Award-winning MUBI.”

Missing from that list? Netflix.

Netflix and Apple have always had a somewhat frosty relationship. While it’s not nearly as vocal about it as Spotify, it was one of the first big players to reject Apple’s in-app purchasing system years ago, it killed off AirPlay support in 2019 for dubious reasons, held out on Spatial Audio support for AirPods, and it’s still the only noteworthy streaming service that doesn’t tie in with Apple’s TV app. It’s also the only major streaming service that hasn’t joined Apple’s Video Partner Program, which boasts over a hundred premium subscription video providers, including major players like Amazon Prime, Disney+, and Max.

So, we weren’t exactly shocked when Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman shared the news last summer that Netflix would be taking a hard pass on a native Vision Pro app. That seemed fair enough, as one can’t really blame the fiercely independent streaming giant for not having much interest in Apple’s arguably niche $3,500 headset. However, it seems that the final word from Netflix is worse than we thought.

When Apple unveiled the Vision Pro in June, it made it clear that any iPad app on the App Store should be able to run unmodified on the Vision Pro. Users wouldn’t get the whole immersive experience, of course, but the app would still be able to run in a floating window in front of their eyeballs.

Gurman and others initially believed that the Netflix app would fall into this category, providing a solution for Netflix viewers that made it seem even more understandable why the streaming giant would pass on a native visionOS app.

Sadly, though, that won’t be the case. While any iPad app should be able to run fine on the Vision Pro, it seems that Netflix plans to “snub” Apple’s new headset entirely, according to a new Bloomberg report from Mark Gurman.

In what feels like a rather spiteful move, not only will Netflix not have a native app for the Vision Pro, but it plans to block the Netflix iPad app from being used on the headset.

That’s a stark turnaround for the company, which told Gurman in July that it “would support its iPad app on the Vision Pro.”

The fact that Netflix isn’t even willing to support the iPad approach suggests that it’s taking a wait-and-see stance with the headset. It’s also a bit of a reversal for the company, which said in July that it would support its iPad app on the Vision Pro. Even then, though, Netflix didn’t plan to release software specifically for the headset’s operating system, visionOS.Mark Gurman

To be absolutely clear, this isn’t a matter of Netflix refusing to make its iPad app compatible with the Vision Pro — Apple states in its visionOS developer pages that not only will most iPad apps extend to the platform “with no additional work required” but that they’ll be automatically published on the Vision Pro App Store.

Most iPadOS and iOS apps can run unmodified on Apple Vision Pro, so your app can easily extend to this new platform — with no additional work required. Your compatible iPad and iPhone apps will be published automatically on the App Store for Apple Vision Pro, using the metadata you’ve already provided.Apple

However, developers can also “edit [their] app’s availability at any time in App Store Connect,” which seems to be what Netflix has done.

In all fairness to Netflix, there may be some technical compatibility issue that renders its Netflix app buggy or non-functional on the Vision Pro that the company doesn’t feel like dealing with. Netflix uses a custom video player to handle things like copy protection and the insertion of ads, so perhaps that doesn’t translate as easily to a mixed-reality environment as we might think. Only Netflix’s software engineers know for sure.

Either way, Vision Pro users won’t get a native app of any kind for streaming Netflix. Instead, the company says that customers can use Safari if they want to watch their favorite Netflix shows.

Our members will be able to enjoy Netflix on the web browser on the Vision Pro, similar to how our members can enjoy Netflix on MacsNetflix

While that should get the job done, it’s going to be a pretty dull experience compared to rivals like Disney+, which has enthusiastically embraced the new mixed reality, not only releasing a native visionOS app but creating four iconic immersive environments to watch them in, which Apple says includes “the Disney+ Theater, inspired by the historic El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood; the Scare Floor from Pixar’s Monsters Inc.; Marvel’s Avengers Tower overlooking downtown Manhattan; and the cockpit of Luke Skywalker’s landspeeder, facing a binary sunset on the planet Tatooine from the Star Wars galaxy.”

However, Netflix subscribers using a Vision Pro won’t have access to app-specific features, such as downloading content for offline viewing, which could mean leaving your favorite shows behind when traveling or having to watch them on an iPhone or iPad instead, since the Mac is also left out offline viewing due to its similar lack of a native Netflix app.

Further, as John Gruber points out at Daring Fireball, the browser-based design “might also mean that VisionOS users will not be able to launch Netflix from their home screens” since visionOS may not have an “Add to Home Screen” feature in Safari like iOS and iPadOS do. Presumably, there should be some way to bookmark it in the browser, but that’s a cumbersome workaround compared to selecting an app icon.