Even if Apple highlights support for WebXR technology in Safari, the version of the browser deployed in visionOS 1.0.2 is incompatible with immersive 3D content. The porn industry remains excluded from the Apple ecosystem. For the moment.
Since Numerama received the Apple Vision Pro, a question has regularly come up on social networks: is it possible to watch a pornographic film, in 3D, with the Apple headset? A use permitted by competing headsets, such as those from Meta.
The answer may disappoint many: no. As it stands, the Vision Pro browser, Safari, does not yet support the technology that allows you to stream VR content in a browser. On the App Store side, as on iPhone and iPad, adult films are completely banned.
The porn industry awaits its moment of glory on Vision Pro
Unless Europe forces Apple to open its Vision Pro, installing pornographic applications on Apple’s headset will probably remain impossible. The only solution to access this content is the web.
Precisely, this is where there is a “problem”. The Vision Pro provides access to Safari like on a computer, and therefore to access normal X sites (in 2D), but does not yet manage porn films in virtual reality (in 3D, at 180 or 360 degrees). The WebXR API, which has been used by porn site creators for years, was only partially supported by Apple at the launch of the Vision Pro.
By default, WebXR is disabled on visionOS. You can activate it in the headset settings, in the advanced settings of Safari, but Apple only supports half of its features.
On a site like Pornhub, Apple-style WebXR allows you to activate screen control using movements. By moving your head, you can make the video move. But 3D content, as designed by porn sites, cannot be displayed in 3D. Safari just doesn’t handle it. In short, we just see a 2D video that moves at the same time as our face.
Is this a voluntary blockage by Apple? Probably not, since WebXR is not only used for pornographic sites (even if it is undoubtedly its main client). The brand is discovering WebXR, little by little, and will undoubtedly deploy other features in the future.
In the meantime, the reaction from the porn industry could be interesting. Will they change the technology used to operate the Vision Pro now (Apple invented “immersive videos”, 8K, 3D and 180 degrees) or wait for the brand to adopt the good old WebXR according to the rules of the art? Another possibility: the arrival of a competing browser Safari which would natively embed WebXR, to attract amateurs immersive content.
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