YouTube has a ton of videos created for immersive viewing, but without an official YouTube app on Vision Pro, it’s a bit of a song and dance to get them to play. Moon Player however launched a Vision Pro app that, with significantly less hassle, not only unlocks YouTube’s library of VR video, but lets you play basically any video format regardless of origin. Yes. Even those.
Admittedly, the paid Moon Player app isn’t exactly a one-click solution, since pulling up a VR video from YouTube requires you to select the correct format first, i.e. VR180, VR360, cubemap, top/bottom or side-by-side, etc.
Still, it delivers what it says on the tin: in addition to unlocking YouTube’s library of immersive video content, you can also play virtually every video format and every codec, which includes support for UHD, 4K, 8K and 12K playback.
Beyond YouTube, Moon Player’s other headlining feature is its ability to let you play downloaded files, thanks to integration with Vision Pro’s built-in Files and Photos apps. Users can directly drag and drop videos from Files and open in Moon Player, or long-press the video in Files and select to open with Moon Player, the studio says. Essentially, this lets you access content in a way Apple doesn’t allow out of the box, including content on iCloud, SMB servers, AirDrop, etc.
Granted, Moon Player is missing some functionality we hope to see in the future. For now, it doesn’t let you browse arbitrary video URLs for direct viewing, which means you’ll still need to somehow download the video in question and play locally. That’s a sight better than Vision Pro’s native video viewer though, which was primarily designed to view spatial videos captured on the headset or iPhone 15, and standard video content.
You can grab Moon Player now on the App Store, priced at $5. Created by Innovision, you’ll also find the app available across a host of VR devices, including Quest, SteamVR, Pico, and more.