One of the biggest pieces of Vision Pro news from today’s WWDC is that the headset will be getting support for PSVR 2 motion controllers and a Logitech motion stylus with the release of visionOS 26. Now we’re learning more of the details, including the fact that developers will be able to publish Vision Pro apps that ‘require’ motion controllers, and those which make them ‘optional’. The change is a surprising shift compared to the hand-tracking only approach that Apple launched the headset with.

In a recorded developer session released at WWDC 2025, Apple went into more detail about upcoming support for motion controllers on VisionOS 26.

Image courtesy Apple

One of the interesting things we learned is that developers will be able to publish Vision Pro apps with an ‘optional’ or ‘required’ motion controller designation. Developers will make this choice, and it will show up in the App Store so users know what to expect.

This of course opens the door to Vision Pro content which works exclusively with motion controllers. While it would be nice if hand-tracking was supported in every single app, the reality is that most existing VR games (ie: on platforms like Quest and PC VR) are built specifically for motion controllers, and would need to be significantly redesigned to support hand-tracking.

In VisionOS 26, Apple will allow developers to publish Vision Pro apps which ‘require’ motion controllers, meaning developers will be able to publish their existing VR content on Vision Pro with significantly less effort than if hand-tracking was required.

Image courtesy Apple

When building apps for motion controllers on Vision Pro, developers will be able to choose between two different tracking modes: Predicted and Continuous.

The Predicted mode will offer the lowest apparent latency by estimating where the controller will end up in future frames based on its present movement. This mode will likely be best for games with lots of player motion.

The Continuous mode will offer the highest precision by not estimating future position. This will prevent ‘overshoot’ when a user suddenly changes the direction of the motion controller. However, this will come at the cost of higher apparent latency. This mode will likely be best for apps that want optimal precision, like art and productivity.

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Despite talking about these two tracking modes, as far as we know, Apple has yet to share any specific info on how much latency developers can expect when using motion controllers on Vision Pro.

For more on VisionOS 26, check out our overview of major changes here.

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Ben Lang
Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • Paul Bellino

    Finally A Step in the Right Direction

  • Arno van Wingerde

    So much for the famous UI touch that Apple is always boasting, but at least they have removed the single worst error, and they are improving, more consistently so than Meta where it is often one step forward, two steps back.

  • Christian Schildwaechter

    TL;DR: this is not Apple acknowledging that controllers are the way to go, this is only Apple building a bridge to current VR developers until the Vision market becomes large enough for devs to default to hand tracking, as controllers not bundled remain niche devices.

    It remains to be seen how much of an impact allowing 6DoF controllers will have. It will no doubt help with porting existing VR games, but if a future Apple Vision sells at a more reasonable price to a larger group of people, the vast majority of these will not buy PSVR2 controllers. Accessories that are not bundled with a device usually only reach a very low market penetration, and are often ignored by developers simply because requiring them seriously reduced their potential customer base.

    And Apple is sending a rather strong signal by not offering their own controllers, instead just allowing the use of 3rd party controllers. It is of course possible that Apple will offer their own in the future, but I seriously doubt that. They also never released a gamepad, only integrating PS and Xbox controllers. Starting in late 2023, the iPhone got a couple of AAA titles like RE8, Death Stranding and Assassin's Creed Mirage, all of which can (and should) be played with a controller, but all of which default to touchscreen controls because that's how most users will play them.

    With less than 500K AVP sold, most game developers won't integrate hand tracking just for this one particular headset. But with more HMDs relying primarily on hand tracking, the design of many VR games will change to target the largest possible audience. So you shouldn't interpret this as Apple making a U-turn. This is more Apple acknowledging that right now they need controller support to get devs to port games, and they need those because the AVP market is still to small to justify creating larger games designed to directly work with it. But that will very likely change. Apple already successfully forced mobile game developers used to buttons and sticks on Nintendo DS or PS Vita to come up with input methods that worked with only a touchscreen and gyroscope.

    • Arno van Wingerde

      Hm… in order to force controllers to change their input controls you must really have a large market share. iPhone and iPad have that, so OK. AVP is currently far too expensive, and as such total AVP sales are waaaaaay too low to attract AAA developers, unless Apple sponsors them, or if enthusiasts want to do it, simply because they can.
      Meta has trouble reaching this point and even assuming AVP owners have less trouble parting with their money – which seems reasonable – the market is still orders of magnitude smaller than Meta's.

      If the "AVP2" gets cheaper and more practical, say $1500 or so and if people have enough reason to buy them for 2D apps, or watching movies etc. than developers just might be supporting AVP2 + controllers. Changing the input mode for that market sound rather suicidal for most game studios, unless controllerless mode simply fits the game better. We have seen how many controllerless games come out for the Quest… 5 or so?

      By not supporting controllers out of the box Apple has made their entry in VR/AR way more difficult: it will only take off if there are enough other use cases to get people to actually buy these things for 2D applications? Apple is probably the best company on earth to provide users with something that they really need, rather than purely going for specs, but I wonder about their approach here… time will tell! meanwhile Meta and others have time to "app their game".

      • Christian Schildwaechter

        The main point is that Apple isn't really a gaming company, doesn't even want to be, and nonetheless generates more profit from games than anybody else. In Q4'24 they also generated the fourth highest gaming revenue (USD ~16B), after Tencent (USD ~33B) and Microsoft/Sony (both USD ~20B). People don't buy iPhones for gaming, they buy them for taking photos, messaging, video calls running lots of 2D apps and occasionally even making phone calls. But there are so many of these only occasionally gaming iPhone users much more willing to spend money on apps than Android users that developers simply have to be on iOS.

        And the same might one day apply to Apple Vision. People will buy them for media consumption, spatial versions of iOS apps, virtual screen and communication as avatars, and also occasionally playing games. Basically none of these average users will buy controllers, and again developers simply will have to be on visionOS and adapt to the default hand tracking.

        Meta is of course much better positioned for gaming focused XR, but much worse positioned for anything else due to the lacking flat app base that draws in billions on Android and iOS. This change won't happen within the next five years, and we'll have to wait and see if smart glasses etc. are actually established in ten years. But unless these turn out to be a similar niche as VR gaming headsets, a lot of things hint that this is where the market will be going.

  • Derek Kent

    Imagine if they just included controllers with their 5000 dollar device..

  • The fact that I have to choose how I want the tracking to be basically means that the tracking is not good yet, so I have to choose which compromise on quality I do want