Apple Engineers Allegedly Able to Use Vision Pro With Two Mac Displays

Apple's new Vision Pro headset can serve as an external display for a Mac, letting you view and control your computer's screen in a visionOS window. The feature can currently be used with only a single Mac display, but analyst Ben Thompson today suggested that Apple has internally tested the ability to use multiple displays.

Apple Vision Pro Mac Virtual Display
"I have heard through the grapevine that Vision Pro users at Apple headquarters can project two Mac screens," said Thompson, in his review of the headset.

Apple engineers have access to future visionOS versions, and feature flags that enable extra functionality, so this revelation is certainly believable. However, it's unclear if Apple plans to let the public use the feature with multiple displays.

For now, if your Mac has external displays connected to it, the Vision Pro only shows the main display that you have set in the Mac's System Settings app. While the Vision Pro is showing a Mac's display, the computer's built-in display and any external monitors that are connected to it appear black and cannot be used during that time.

The feature is compatible with any Mac running macOS Sonoma, but the maximum display resolution is limited to 3K for Intel-based Macs.

Related Roundups: Apple Vision Pro, visionOS 2
Buyer's Guide: Vision Pro (Neutral)
Related Forum: Apple Vision Pro

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Top Rated Comments

mrat93 Avatar
15 months ago

How is that news? Even my crappy quest 2 can 3 monitors
It’s news because it’s not available on AVP currently. This article is about AVP, not Quest.

I mean I get your point — but what — should MR not report on any features coming to AVP which exist on other platforms?
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Ashwee Avatar
15 months ago
Windows/apps don't need to be constrained to a boxed display/window at all, especially with spatial computing. Let Mac apps and windows roam free like all other VisionPro apps. Either that or just allow resizable aspect ratios.
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ovrlrd Avatar
15 months ago
Can’t wait for Apple to call this a new feature in the 2nd gen AVP. “Thanks to more powerful m3 processing”
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
uecker87 Avatar
15 months ago
The second display is going to be locked behind a $1,000 paywall, duh. I am just kidding - I hope.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
zahuh Avatar
15 months ago
Isn’t this what everyone wants? Separate Mac windows

[MEDIA=twitter]1751251567641346340[/MEDIA]
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
tobybrut Avatar
15 months ago

Why not just install a 3rd party app that lets you do just that or is that another restriction for no reason by Apple? I am using „immersed“ on Quest 3
As a retired former software engineer and based on things mentioned in the story, I would guess the reason is that Apple isn’t confident of the multi-monitor feature, whether it’s because of bugs or lack of system resources to allow for good performance. If it’s indeed running in Apple labs, it probably needs a ton of optimization.

Remember it’s still really early in that we can’t even arrange app icons on the “desktop” yet, a feature that will inevitably come to VisionOS. Or mouse support. There are probably a ton of features Apple simply hasn’t finished. Software managers would insist they have to ship something, so right now we have a very limited feature set. Time will tell. This is still very much a 1.0 (well, 1.0.2. Close enough). 1.0’s are rarely feature packed compared to what we get with a 2.0 or even a 1.5. I can mention quite a few bugs I’ve encountered that definitely need fixing before they get to new features.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)