How to Start Vision Pro Development (Today)

Introduction

When Apple unfurled the announcement of its latest innovation, the Vision Pro, my enthusiasm surged. Why? Because this was not just another addition to their tech portfolio, it was a whole new platform. A limitless canvas where we, the pioneers of code, could truly let our creativity run wild.

When the news hit, my immediate sentiment was awe. But, concurrently, a question lurked: 'This is revolutionary, but my arena is web development. Can I craft projects for this kind of device?' The challenge was daunting but tantalizing. Here was an opportunity to stride beyond my comfort zone, to master a new set of skills, despite having minimal experience with building native apps.

Months later, I find myself on the brink of releasing my second app for the Vision Pro. The journey has taught me how to construct simple but effective apps for this platform. But this narrative isn't about me. This is your ticket to join the Vision Pro realm, an invitation to dive into a 3D world, to create, innovate and manifest your ideas into tangible applications.

Are you ready to leap into the future of tech?
Join me as we explore, learn, and build for Apple's Vision Pro.

What do you need to know?

Swift is the foundation for developing applications for Apple platforms, including Vision Pro. Let's break down the process into accessible steps.

Swift

First thing is learning how to code. But that's a another topic. I assume you know how to program - at least a bit. Because that makes the journey a lot easier. Otherwise I would encourage you to start with coding.

Swift is Apple's own programming language and you need it to build any kind of native Apple product. This is especially true for vision pro. As far as I know right now it is the easiest way to do it.

But how can you learn it now? There are many great resources out there. There is even a book about the language from Apple themself. I like to learn, just the basics and don't try to overcomplicate things. Because we want to get into building apps as soon as possible.

Learn some things - then start building. Later dive into the details.

Platform specifics

After you have learned about swift - you have to learn about the platform. For vision pro it is the same as for iOS apps. You can build interfaces with SwiftUI. I think it helps if you build a small iOS project first. Because you probably know some parts of other platforms or even use the devices yourself.

Just get familiar with building layouts in SwiftUI. How an iOS project can be structured and what are the patterns that can be used in native development. There are some great resources which I will share later. These will help you to build your first iOS app.

Now comes the fun part. Getting familiar with the vision Pro platform. If you have a device. Use it. I think it is an advantage. If you do not. It is no problem. You can just try the simulator. Try the already installed apps. Install some of the example projects from Apple - just learn how this device and the simulator can be used.

Windows

Your vision Pro app will start with the first window it finds. Which will be presented to the user. You can move windows through the space. They are mostly 2D. You can imagine them as big Ipad apps floating through your space. I love that.

You can create more of these windows. But you can not set their position. So play around with creating windows. Open and close them on the click of a button.

Immersive Space

This is the new part. Building immersive experiences. These also can be opened programmatically. If they are opened - you can basically use the whole space and place 3D objects in it.

Apple added a way to make that really easy. If you have a 3D object - you can just use the 3DModel file and place it there. Do that. Play with the 3D content. It gives us as developers so many more possibilities.

From there on you can use a lot of the stuff which is already available. Apple pushed AR technologies already over the years. They have built a lot of things for that. You can use them but not always. That's the beauty of being an early adopter.

But there are also some resources from Apple on how you can build great immersive experiences.

What are the ressources?

You now know what is needed to build vision pro apps. But where can you learn more about it? There are many things you can do. Here are some resources I found helpful.

Apple WWDC content

The Apple Vision Pro was released at the WWDC 2023 - therefore Apple made a lot of videos for developers to understand how to build for the new device.

You can find all of the videos here: https://developer.apple.com/visionos/learn/

Most of the videos are awesome. Even the ones that are not really development specific are very interesting and I promise you will learn a lot.

Really helpful also is the section about developer news.

There you can find a really helpful Q&A which gives you a lot of insights. Furthermore you can look at the developer stories and how other developers have built apps for the vision pro which I found really motivating.

Example Projects

Apple themself published some example projects. Which are very nice. But do not get frustrated. The code is very complex. I even heard some experienced developers tell that. For me they helped to understand - how projects for vision pro can be built and what are some things that can be done.

But do not worry if you do not understand everything yet. It will get better.

Courses

There are not many courses out there yet. I mean I think it does not make too much sense for a solo dedicated apple vision pro course. Why? Because in general it is not that different from developing other apps for the apple ecosystem.

But there are some great courses for iOS Development. There is one a lot of people recommended to me.

iOS app development bootcamp

This course covers a lot. I did some parts of it. The good thing is that there is also a part about AR Kit which will help you to understand how to build immersive experiences. But this is designed for iOS. It can not be translated completely to visionOS.

Then there is a course I would love to highlight. The CS193p from Stanford.

Stanford CS193p

This course covers great topics and you will even learn how to build your fist app. The best thing is: it is completely free. I think if you want to dip your feet into iOS Development - you should think about starting here. The newest one is currently the lectures from spring 2023.

If you want a small course specifically for Vision Pro. Then I can recommend this one.

Build a vision pro app from scratch

It is made by a youtuber - and helped me a lot to understand some things. It even builds a cool little project while learning. So if you feel ready to build your first project. Go there.

The last recommendation for courses here would be the full day workshop from Hacking with Swift. I joined it live. It was amazing. It should be still available if you become a subscribing member on their site.

A lot of different topics were covered and again a small app was built. This is a fun thing for maybe a weekend to level up your Vision Pro skills. Furthermore there where questions asked by the community - which likely maybe will be your questions.

Books

Currently there are no books available. Or as far as I dont know of good ones. But again - building for vision pro is not that different from building for other apple platforms.

So one book that helped me a lot was one from Kodeco. It covers real world tactics to build Apps. I think that helps a lot if you want to make a real app at some point. Which is not only for fun but instead will also go live in the app store.

It covers a lot of topics which other books won’t. It even shows how to do testing and how to publish your app to the app store.

ChatGPT

I want to leave some words about this tool here. It helped me a lot. But yes it has some flaws. So mostly ChatGPT does not know about Vision Pro - why? Because as far as I know most of the models are based on knowledge from a time where the vision pro did not exist. So how should the model know?

But as mentioned before - building for apple vision pro is not groundbreaking different. So ChatGPT can help. But do not trust it blindly. Try to see it as a partner you can learn with. It can give you some hints, directions and ideas. But it does not know everything.

I had some moments where I got stuck. Then it helped. It helped to generate ideas. Often the code was wrong. Or even things were invented that were completely wrong. But sometimes it could be a good idea to use this tool.

And maybe one day we will get a nice coding partner from Apple. Let's see.

Final words

Start learning for apple vision pro today. It is fun. Try a new platform which will evolve over the years. Maybe you can bring completely new worlds to live through your newly gained knowledge. Wouldn’t that be cool? I think so.

Looking forward to hearing your tipps, tricks and resources to learn Vision Pro Development.