Apple Vision Pro, which is Apple's first mixed-reality headset, is shaping up to be an entertainment device rather than a productivity device. That's partially due to how excellent content consumption can be on the headset, like watching 3D movies or reliving Spatial Videos. However, it's also true because the Vision Pro's primary input method — hand and eye tracking — lacks precision in productivity applications. There are other limitations, too, such as how you can only use one Mac virtual display with Vision Pro.

I purchased Vision Pro, and one of the areas I was most disappointed with while using the headset was the Mac virtual display functionality. It just felt like having a virtual dual or triple monitor setup made so much sense, but was missing from Vision Pro. Well, the newly-released Splitscreen app adds dual-display support for Mac virtual displays on Vision Pro.

It's not an official solution, and it's definitely a work-in-progress. But I've been using Splitscreen on my Vision Pro headset (in TestFlight beta) for about a week, and it's been a much better way to work. However, I'm concerned that the biggest problem with Mac virtual display functionality is derived from hardware limitations, and Splitscreen can't fix those.

How native Mac virtual displays work

Only one virtual display, at either 3K or 4K resolution, is supported

Before we get into what Splitscreen does, let's discuss native Mac virtual display support on Vision Pro first. Many were shocked to learn that Vision Pro could only power one virtual Mac display when Apple announced the feature, including myself. We don't know the details, but there's likely a bandwidth or processing limitation that explains why Vision Pro can't display two virtual Mac screens. However, there are rumors that Apple engineers are reportedly able to use dual Mac virtual displays on Vision Pro in Cupertino. When or if that functionality will be released to end users is a complete unknown right now.

Vision Pro can currently either display a 4K virtual Mac display from an Apple Silicon Mac or a 3K virtual display from an Intel Mac. Those using a MacBook can start using a Mac virtual display by looking at their laptop while wearing Vision Pro and tapping the Connect button that appears. If you're on a desktop Mac, you'll need to initiate display sharing from either the Control Center, Menu Bar, or System Settings menu. After that, you'll get to use your one Mac virtual display in Vision Pro.

Splitscreen adds a second virtual display

It's like DisplayLink, but for Mac virtual displays on Vision Pro

For the most part, setting up Splitscreen on my Mac and Vision Pro was pretty painless. I had to download the app from TestFlight on Vision Pro, since I was beta testing Splitscreen. Then, I needed to download a Splitscreen app for my Mac computer. The desktop client is what shares the virtual Mac display with the Splitscreen app on Vision Pro, enabling dual display functionality. After downloading and setting up Splitscreen on my Mac, a new icon appeared in the Menu Bar. Once it's there, you can start using a virtual Mac display in Vision Pro with two clicks.

You need to enable a few permissions for Splitscreen to work, such as screen recording and other accessibility settings. This is because the app will "trick" your Mac into displaying the virtual screen on Vision Pro, much like DisplayLink tricks Macs into powering more external monitors than they support. Essentially, Splitscreen will share your screen with the Mac client, just like you'd share your screen in an app like Zoom or Google Meet. Except instead of an application, the screen sharing is displayed in a Splitscreen app window in visionOS.

Splitscreen technically only supports one display, at least for now. But the app works in tandem with the native Vision Pro feature, and each can provide a single virtual Mac display. That gives you two total Mac virtual displays, which in theory should be much more useful for productivity than just the one.

So, how does it work? At first, it wasn't great. There were frequent freezes and times when my Mac and the Vision Pro virtual display simply stopped communicating with each other. However, recent TestFlight updates have made the Splitscreen app very usable. There's one major issue right now, which is that using Splitscreen causes the bemoaned "Input temporarily not working" error to show up all the time. The developers explained that the error is part of an issue with Continuity, the feature that allows you to use Vision Pro seamlessly with other Apple devices.

Basically, it means that this intrusive pop-up will cover some content on your native Mac virtual display. It's quite annoying, because there's no way to dismiss it. On the other hand, I can settle for this error message in exchange for a ton of extra macOS screen space.

For an app with Spitscreen's ambitions, I'm impressed with how it has come together in just a few weeks. There are reasons that I still don't want to work in Vision Pro, but those reasons are not because Splitscreen is bad. To me, it's just as good as something like DisplayLink. That's saying something, because DisplayLink has been around for years. If you're a Vision Pro owner, I'd highly recommend giving the Splitscreen app a try.

It's great, but not perfect

Splitscreen can't overcome Vision Pro hardware limitations

Using the app isn't a perfect solution for productivity, and it's partially because Splitscreen can only push a 1920 x 1080 resolution. But the real problem is that the displays inside Vision Pro simply do not have a high-enough resolution to make Mac virtual displays a sensible option. They each offer a 4K resolution, but the total 8K resolution offered has to show around 100 degrees in your field-of-view. We talk about pixel density a lot when it comes to displays, but many have seemingly forgotten this important part of display evaluation when considering Vision Pro. Compared to something like a 5K Apple Studio Display, the Vision Pro is seriously lacking.

To me, the resolution issue is much bigger than the lack of multiple Mac virtual displays. Splitscreen does a superb job at fixing the software limitations, but the developers still need Apple to improve the hardware in future versions of Vision Pro.