Even with great hand-tracking, writing anything more than a quick search on Vision Pro’s virtual floating keyboard leaves something to be desired since you’re basically back at the ‘hunt and peck’ stage of typing. You can opt to use a Bluetooth keyboard, or voice-to-text input, but did you know you can also use the iPhone right in your pocket?

Created by Mathijs Kadijk of Nonstrict B.V., Typos is a free app for Vision Pro that lets you do just that. Granted, it doesn’t provide the sort of system-wide access to text input fields like Apple might do with official iPhone keyboard support, but it’s a great way to start using that hardwired muscle memory every user surely has and typing as fast as you physically can.

Here’s how it works: after downloading Typos, you can spawn a text window next to anything you’re currently working on, be it a URL field or the humble and never divisive comment section of your favorite XR-focused website. From there, you can type in the Typos window, and then pinch-to-drag your text wherever you need it.

Check it out in action below:

https://twitter.com/mac_cain13/status/1763162299768979594?s=12

Another big benefit is the app also gives you access to iPhone autocorrect features, which probably makes it the fastest way to type on Vision Pro right now outside of stenographer’s keyboard. Notably, Typos also features support for iPad, which also includes support for Magic Keyboard or folio keyboard attached to your iPad.

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Granted, you’ll probably still need to actually see your iPhone in mixed reality mode, provided you don’t have exceptional muscle memory. Still, for many it really could be the headset’s lightest and lowest-friction way of inputting larger amounts of text right now.

You may recognize Typos creator Mathijs Kadijk from his other work, most notable of which is the iPhone screen-mirroring app Bezel, which lets iPhone users plug in directly to their Macs for a quick and easy presenting solution. It’s basically like Apple’s built-in iPhone screen mirroring function, albeit with faster refresh rates thanks to using a direct tether, and also a more realistic view of your device since it includes those titular bezels.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • Me

    You’d think Apple, who’s already messed up keyboard input so bad with the Apple TV that they had to enable input from an iPhone would already have thought to allow the same with their Vision Pro? Nope…

  • Brian Elliott Tate

    I was really excited about this until it dawned on me that you could just use the Notes app to do the same thing. Any text that you copy on the iPhone can be pasted on any Vision Pro text input. I think that actually works better than this workflow of requiring two additional apps to be open at all times (one on iPhone and the other on Vision Pro)

    • Christian Schildwaechter

      Typos may offer a slight workflow improvement by being a dedicated app with the text always selected, so you only need a single drag operation, while using Notes requires an additional “select all” and possibly highlighting the current note. But in general the functionality existed, and the ideal scenario is Apple in the future allowing direct input from the iPhone touchscreen keyboard into the currently active visionOS app.

      • Brian Elliott Tate

        Yeah, the issue with Typos is that there’s no “clear” button, so you still need to select all and delete after you’ve inputted something.

        Bluetouch is almost the perfect solution as it lets you type directly to any Apple Vision Pro textbox. The only issue is that it doesn’t automatically apply the auto correct. You have to tap the middle suggestion each time if you want to always use auto correct.

    • g-man

      I imagine the text doesn’t look as good through passthrough but maybe good enough.

  • ApocalypseShadow

    How about just adding improved voice dictation and word correction that makes typing unnecessary. Add AI to the mix to improve performance and better end results. Adding more apps and more apps into the mix just isn’t Apple like when it comes to ease of use and the “it just works” style.

  • g-man

    How dare you call us non-divisive!