With a $3,499 price tag (and that’s before any lenses you might need), you want to get the most out of your Apple Vision Pro investment. One way to do that is to have one device used by multiple users and to facilitate that, it’d be ideal if visionOS, the software that drives the headset, supported multiple user accounts so an entire family or household could share one device.
During a demo of the Apple Vision Pro, Apple told me that it does…sort of. As of now, visionOS supports two user accounts: a primary user and a guest account. Apple could change this policy before the actual release next year if its beta research tells them it’s an in-demand feature. (Considering Apple’s stubbornness about making iPads multi-user capable, it seems like Apple is unlikely to change its mind.)
The primary user has their settings, such as EyeSight, saved to the device. In a Guest account, the user would have to perform an EyeSight setup each time the Guest account is put to use. The EyeSight setup takes a couple of minutes; a series of dots appear on the screen, and the user has to focus on each one.
Regardless of how visonOS handles multiple users, the headset’s lenses will need to be handled on a user-by-user basis. The lenses are magnetically attached and can be easily switched out. So, for example, if a primary user wears glasses and has lenses for the Apple Vision Pro, they’ll have to remove them for a guest who doesn’t need glasses. If the guest need lenses, they’ll need to have their own lenses that attach to the headset.
Apple has not revealed the pricing of lenses. During a demo, an Apple representative took my glasses and measured my prescription. When the headset is available for order, customers will need to provide Apple with a prescription from their optometrist.
Read our Apple Vision Pro guide for more information about the mixed-reality headset. And be sure to check out the other announcements from WWDC23.
