Watching a YouTube Video on the Apple Vision Pro for Learning is a Miserable Experience

I have reported already on this blog that the lack of certain native visionOS apps is essentially a non-issue. The short list of well known companies not yet developing for Apple Vision Pro includes Netflix, Spotify—and YouTube (Sullivan, 2024). I’ve logged in to both Netflix and YouTube to watch videos on the Apple Vision Pro, and both websites function. However, I have a new experience to share.

Watching a YouTube video on the Apple Vision Pro for learning is, hands-down, the most miserable educational experience I have ever had. The problem is the user interface.

When I’m watching a video for the purpose of learning, I expect to be able to stop and start it, re-listen/re-watch snippets at will, and be able to simply pause when I need to pause to stop and reflect and/or take notes. The YouTube interface, combined with the Apple Vision Pro’s eye-tracking and touch, make these seemingly simple operations nearly impossible.

The problem is the placement of the Play/Pause button in YouTube and the scrubber controls at the bottom of the video:

Almost every time I attempted to pause the video, it jumped back and started from the beginning. The "hotspot" areas for the Play/Pause button and the scrubber controls are very small and seemingly overlap! It's easy to disastrously select the wrong button, causing you lose your place and need to find your place again—which you were not paying attention to. Then if you get close to where you attempted to pause, another Pause button click jumps you back to the start again! It’s an endless loop of frustration. By the time you find your place again, you have forgotten why you paused in the first place—your brain has long since moved on.

Here’s an example of me attempting to pause a YouTube video to quote Marques Brownlee using the Apple Vision Pro. I get the quote, but things go awry after that:

 

Please note that simply getting a native YouTube app on visionOS may not necessarily solve this problem—the interface could still be bad. And for simply watching videos with no frequent starts, stops, or re-watching, the YouTube website works OK. But if YouTube ever gets around to releasing a visionOS YouTube app, I hope YouTube considers us learners and teachers.


References

Brownlee, M. (February 3, 2024). Apple Vision Pro Review: Tomorrow's Ideas... Today's Tech! [Video].  Retrieved from www.youtube.com/watch?v=86Gy035z_KA

Sullivan, M. (January 26, 2024). With the Vision Pro, Apple has never depended more on developers for a product’s success. Fast Company. Retrieved from www.fastcompany.com/91017225/apple-vision-pro-developers-sales