A Quick Guide to the Apple Vision Pro: 14 Tips and Tricks

The Apple Vision Pro was released in the United States recently, And although it’s not had an official UK launch yet, that doesn’t mean you might not already own a Visio Pro or be getting your hands on one soon. 

With a $3,500 price tag, you’ll want to know everything the Vision Pro can do to get the most out of the various features. While many of the options may seem intuitive, there are a few things you may want to do which might not seem immediately obvious. 

In this guide, we’ll share the settings tips and tricks you need to know to get the most out of your new Apple Vision Pro. 

1. Know Your Siri Commands

If you’re already an Apple user, you’re probably good friends with Siri, but even if you’re on first-name terms with the AI, there are a few commands you may want to throw into the mix to enhance your experience with the Vision Pro. 

Siri is useful for speeding things up. For instance, you can open any app by simply saying, “Hey, Siri, launch [app name].” Then, the app will appear wherever you’re looking at that time. You can then turn directions and open a different app elsewhere. You can even put your apps above and below you using this technique. 

You can also ask Siri what time it is where you are or in another part of the world. Little things like this save you time and keep you in the flow of whatever you’re doing at the time.  

If you want to change your immersive background or change day to night or vice versa, all you need to do is say, “Take me to [name of the immersive background]” or “Make it daytime”. 

2. Recalibrate Vision Pro Eye-Tracking or IPD

As with any headset, your interpupillary distance (IPD) must be set for the best experience. Your IPD is the distance between the centres of your eyes. If your headset lenses are set too close together or too far apart, it affects the image quality and your comfort levels. Getting your IPD right will improve the Vision Pro’s eye-tracking accuracy, which is its primary input method. 

You can recalibrate both the eye-tracking and the IPD. Press the “shutter” button in the top left four times for eye-tracking. This will bring up instructions on the screen which you should follow. 

To adjust your IPD, open your settings (you can use Siri!) and go to “Eyes & Hands” in the menu. From there, select “Realign Displays”. This should deal with problems like inaccurate eye inputs, eye strains, or coloured tinting in the periphery of your vision. 

3. Minimise Environments and Apps Quickly

The Vision Pro includes a dial on the top of the headset you can use to alter the level or immersion. Sometimes you may just want to quickly see the world around you without rearranging your windows or turning the dial. There is a quick way to do it. 

On the top right of the Vision Pro, press the “Digital Crown” dial twice. When you want to bring everything back into view, just press the same “Digital Crown” once. 

4. Force Quit Apps

Even on a $3,500 device, you may still encounter an app misbehaving. When you get an app that won’t play ball and won’t shut down the conventional way, 

To close mischievous apps, simply press and hold the button on the top left of your headset along with the digital crown. This will bring up the option to force quit any of the apps you have open. Find the app you want to close, and select “Force Quit”. 

5. Uninstall Apps

If an app doesn’t meet your expectations or you no longer need it, you may want to remove it to free up some extra space. Head to the app menu by pressing the digital crown once. Find the app you no longer want and tap and hold on to it. Then, select “Remove App.” 

6. Force Restart Your Headset

Although your Vision Pro should run smoothly, there may be times when it won’t power down as it should. If this happens, you can force it to restart by pressing the digital crown and the button on the top left of the headset down together. Keep them pressed down until the “Force Quit” menu appears. Then, keep the buttons held down past this point until the screen turns black. 

7. Turn Your Headset Off

To turn your headset off, press and hold the button on the top left of the headset along with the digital crown at the same time before using the power slider to turn the headset off. 

8. FaceTime— Even With People Without An Apple Device

FaceTime is a well-established app that works across Apple devices. But if you’re talking to someone that doesn’t have an iPad or iPhone, you can still FaceTime them through your Vision Pro. 

To do this, you’ll need to send them an invite link. This lets them talk to you from a Windows PC or an Android phone or tablet using their web browser. You can send the invitation by pressing the digital crown once to open the app menu. You’ll see the “People” section on the left of the app menu, at the top left of this select “New Link”. You can send this link to whoever you want to FaceTime with. 

Once they accept your invitation, they’ll appear in your “People Waiting” menu. Let them into your chat whenever you’re ready to talk. 

9. Stream and Share Your Apps Via Facetime

Once you’re in a FaceTime call with someone, you can share individual apps and stream your entire view to them. Perfect for if you want to watch a movie together or work on a project.

To do this, start your FaceTime call as normal. Head to “Supported Applications” and press “SharePlay”. The app will need to be supported. In certain cases, an app may also require the FaceTime participant to have the app installed on their device and be subscribed. For instance, if you wanted to share a movie or show from Apple TV. 

10. Place All Your Apps and Windows In View

Having the ability to place your apps and windows situated wherever you want in your home is one of the things that makes the Vision Pro’s spatial computing potential come alive. But if you’re someone that likes to keep multiple tabs and windows open, you might find you lose some of them. 

Instead of rolling your head around the entire room in a panic, you can find lost apps and windows by holding down the digital crown dial for a few seconds. Your open apps will then appear in front of you. 

This process also centres your view. This is useful if you’ve moved around your room, or even moved to another area of your home. Immersive apps retain their forward position once they’re open. You can address this by resetting the forward heading of your app. 

11. Take a Screenshot or Capture Video Footage

As with your smartphone, you can screenshot your current view so you can share it online or with friends and colleagues. To capture a screenshot press and release the top left button and the digital crown simultaneously. 

Because your Vision Pro will blur the areas surrounding your gaze, ensure you’re looking directly at the image you’d like to capture. Once you’ve taken it, you can view your screenshot in Photos. 

To record a video, tilt your head up and look up with your eyes and locate a small dot. Select this to open the Control Centre. Next, select the icon that looks like sliding switches and then the circle inside a circle. This will start the recording process. 

When you want to stop recording, press the top left button on your headset or select “Stop” from the Control Centre. 

Your Vision Pro won’t record audio by default. You can change this by tapping and holding the circle within a circle in the Control Centre options. Doing this will open a menu where you can turn your microphone on. 

12. Cast or Mirror Your View

You can show off your view with anyone who is in the same room as you by mirroring or casting your current view. Casting or mirroring can only be done to an Apple device that’s connected to the same network as your device. This includes AirPlay-supported TVs, iPhones, iPads, and MacBooks. 

To activate mirror casting, tilt your head up and look up with your eyes until you see a small dot. Select the dot and open the Control Centre. From there, you’ll see two sliding switch icons. Select this. Then select the icon with the two overlapping squares. Finally, select which device you would like to cast to. 

iPhones and iPods don’t typically have AirPlay enabled. To set this up, go to settings on the iPhone or iPad, then select “General”, “AirPlay and Handoff” and turn on “AirPlay Receiver”.  

MacBooks usually have AirPlay enabled so these should naturally appear on your Vision Pro’s mirror cast list. If AirPlay isn’t turned on, go to the Mac’s system settings, select “General”, “AirDrop and Handoff” and ensure “AirPlay Receiver” is on. 

13. Use Spotlight Search and Launcher

Spotlight is a launcher that’s built into Apple devices letting you open and switch apps quickly. It’s on the Vision Pro too. There are a couple of ways you can get to this. 

The easiest option is to use the Vision Pro keyboard. Using the keyboard, press cmd+space. If you’re a Mac user, you’ll recognise this shortcut!

Alternatively, you can tilt your head up and look upward with your eyes. You’ll see a small dot from which you can open the Control Centre. Select the two sliding switches, and then choose the magnifying glass icon. 

14. Use Guest User to Share Your Headset

If you’re lending your headset to someone else to use, they’ll need to calibrate it so the IPD and eye-tracking works for them. Thankfully, the Guest User option allows another person to create their own settings so yours remain unchanged. Another benefit is guest users won’t have access to your messages and browsing history, or any other personal information you may not want them seeing. 

To temporarily recalibrate your Vision Pro, activate Guest User by tilting your head up and looking upward until you can see the small dot that opens the Control Centre. Once inside the Control Centre, select the Guest User icon. 

Next, you’ll need to select the apps that the user can access. You can either allow access to all of the installed apps, or just those that are currently open. 

If you want to see what the Guest User sees, you can cast it to an Apple Mac, iPhone or a nearby AirPlay TV. 

When the guest places the headset on, they’ll be welcomed by prompts to help them calibrate the device to their IPD. 

After they’ve finished using the headset, the Guest User will be disabled and you can start using it again with your settings.