What’s next for Step Into Vision?

Reflecting on our first year. Announcing new initiatives to turn Step Into Vision into the best hub for professionals working with Apple Vision Pro.

Today marks once year since the launch of this project. The community gathered to celebrate and talk about the next phase. This article summarizes some of the announcements from that event.

The First Year

When I started this site last year I wanted a dedicated space to share my visionOS work. Prior to that point I had been building small labs and demos and publishing them on my personal site. Those labs are still there. Many of them have been recreated or adapted in the Example Code or Labs sections. Over the summer of 2024 I started to work on a series of examples to document many of the advanced uses of visionOS windows, volumes, and spaces. While working on that series it became clear that I would benefit from a new place that focused on visionOS development. I registered a domain and mocked up a quick site.

August 17: Registered domain and started building the site.
August 20: Teased the site for the first time.
August 20: Settled on 4 key sections: Example Code, Labs, Resources, and Articles.
August 24: Soft-launched with a dozen or so posts.

Summer is always busy in the Apple development world. I was busy preparing Project Graveyard 2.0 for the App Store and building Looming Deadlines. I was also counting down the days until Vision Hack 2024. I posted sporadically for the next few weeks before getting into a grove. By October I had 25 posts and by November 50.

A few milestones along the way

October 10, 2025 – 25 posts
November 14, 2025 – 50 posts
December 13 – first private meeting that would become Office Hours
January 13, 2025 – 100 posts
February 14, – publicly launched Step Into Vision Office Hours
April 19, 2024 – 200 posts
July 27 – 300 posts

By the end of 2024 it was clear that I had found my place in the visionOS community. People were sending me requests for example code and labs and new opportunities started to emerge. I had so many things I wanted to build and showcase. I decided to challenge myself and set a new goal. Could I post on Step Into Vision every day of 2025? So far, yes!

In the first year on Step Into Vision I’ve published a total 327 posts for the visionOS developers.

Example Code: 134 posts to learn, teach, and document visionOS development.
Labs: 74 posts to experiment, tinker, and try ideas.
Resources: 49 links to what I think visionOS developers may find helpful.
Articles: 51 newsletters, articles, spotlights, and asides.
Devlogs: 19 updates about my apps

I’m dedicated to sharing as much useful information as I can. My somewhat arbitrary goal of publishing every day of 2025 has been a great way to keep myself motivated.

During this first year we also launched Step Into Vision Office Hours. We did a handful of private meetings in before opening this up. We opened a Community Group on LinkedIn as a place to organize these meetings and we recently created a Discord Server for more timely discussions. Dozens of developers, artists, and creators have joined us in this weekly meeting. We gather to show off our work, help each other with technical issues, brainstorm ideas, and support each other. It’s become an invaluable meeting place for a small but dedicated group of developers.

Today Forward

So what is Step Into Vision Today? It’s a website where we share example code and a community that brings the best visionOS developers together. As of August 24, 2025, the website is largely what I set out to build. Example Code, Labs, Resources, Articles, Devlogs, and a huge Learn visionOS page. It’s a quick reference for visionOS developers and a great place to learn about visionOS features and concepts.

My vision doesn’t stop with example code. There is so much more I want to bring to the community. I’ll tease a few of these initiatives today, but I can’t build all of these by myself. If you would like to get involved and help this community there will be many opportunities ahead.

Many of these new initiatives revolve around a single goal: to turn Step Into Vision into the best hub for professional working with and building for Apple Vision Pro.

Community: Discord

We recently set up a Discord for our core community. We’re keeping it invite-only for now but we plan to expand over time. We want this to be a useful place to get help and support each other. We’ll also use this server as a place to coordinate many of the new initiatives.

Media: YouTube Channel

Step Into Vision is largely written content. That’s mainly because I learn best by reading and writing code. But I know a lot of other people prefer video over written content. The goal is to bring as much of the Example Code section as possible to video. This channel will also be a home for interviews, discussions, and deep dives into topics that may not fit in a regular post on the site.

Site: Developer Directory

A directory to gather the best developers and companies who offer visionOS development services. Showcase the published apps and projects. Describe the services on offer, optionally show pricing and contact information. Once we launch our YouTube channel we may even do short interviews with each developer to include in this section.

Media: Podcast(s)

Who wants to make a Podcast? I’ve spoken with a couple of people about this and we have some good ideas. Nothing concrete yet, but I’m sure we’ll have something to share soon. I’d love to have shows that focus on three aspects: visionOS Development, business, and using visionOS as a power user.

Site: Community Calendar

There is a lot going on in this community. Let’s build calendars to keep track of all the meetups, conferences, and industry events. A community calendar could be a great place to let people know about the release date for an app or major update.

Site: Publishing on Step Into Vision

I want to open Step Into Vision to members of our community. Maybe you want to help create Example Code–there are hundreds of items in the backlog. Maybe you solved a technical issue and what to share it with the world. Developers may be invited to create devlogs for their apps and products. Expect to see a lot of new voices publishing on the site going forward.

Leadership Committee

We’ll form a small committee to shape the future direction of Step Into Vision.

Other Initiatives

There are a few items that may be coming in the future but haven’t been planned yet.

A Glossary / reference of visionOS development terms and concepts
Long-form tutorials and courses
An app directory with links to the developer directory
New times for Office Hours to support developers in other parts of the world
Question and answer section or a forum
Asset Archive: a place to host and optionally sell ready-made assets
Hackathons and game jams

Get Involved

As I’m sure you can tell from the list above, I can’t do any of this alone. I’m looking for volunteers and collaborators to help with all of these. By the end of 2025 the hope is that Step Into Vision is thought of as a community project, not just something from me.

We’ll formalize a signup process to get involved soon. In the meantime, if you want to get involved in one or more of the initiatives above, please each out to me on LinkedIn or contact me in the Discord server. Some ways you can help:

Help build and curate the resource library, developer directory, community calendar
Reviewing and editing written content
Creating or editing videos for the YouTube channel
Hosting or editing audio for the podcasts
Writing for Step Into Vision
Creating long-form tutorials and courses
Run the social media channels
Help organize the community
Graphic design to help with branding and content
Give money. We can bootstrap most of the initiative, but something things may require funding

Shared Visions

The last thing I want to announce today is something special. We’ve all been impressed with immersive media on Apple Vision Pro. Spatial Video and Apple Immersive Video are incredible technologies. visionOS 26 brings support for a wide away of existing formats such as 180, 360. We can show rectilinear video in interesting new ways. We can seamlessly transition between videos, and surround users with immersive environments.

Let’s combine all these formats with the power of visionOS to tell a story. Let’s make that story about Us. The Apple Vision Pro community may be small, but we have a lot to say. Let’s say it, to each other and to everyone else.

In lieu of a formal name, the code name we’ve given this project is Shared Visions.

Here is the idea: We’re going to create a crowd-sourced documentary about the Apple Vision Pro community. We want to talk to developers, filmmakers, and artists who are creating compelling experiences and apps. We also want to talk to power users, content creators, and enthusiasts. We want to hear from people all over the world.

Rather than try to coordinate camera crews and filming days, what if we let people use what they have? With so many options to present immersive media available, why don’t we use them all? Some of us may record ourselves or our friends in spatial video. We may want to capture each other as Personas in FaceTime. Some of us have 180 and 360 cameras we can use. Some of use may choose to organize and meet up with friends and colleagues to share equipment and help each other tell our stories.

We’re going to organize this as a community project. Throughout September we’ll gather people who want to contribute. We plan to meet in early October get down to work. We don’t want a small group of people to do all the work so we’ll need volunteers to help with a lot of activities.

Filmmakers to record and capture
Video and audio editors
Directors to tell the story
Developers to build the Xcode project
Artists to build immersive spaces and 3D assets
Writers to help shape the story we tell
Interviewers who can draw the best from people
Project managers can coordinate teams and resources

Personal Note

I’m deeply grateful to all the folks who have supported me over the past year. I sincerely hope that what I’ve created so far has been useful to you and to the rest of the community. I also hope that you’ll consider joining me on the next phase of this journey. Let’s keep building the future.

Joseph Simpson
August 24, 2025