Remote Control

🇩🇪 Deutsche Fassung

Remote Control (AVP Play Remote)

AVP Play Remote is an app for the Apple Vision Pro. With it you control AVP Play on your Mac while you wear the headset: look through your games, install and update them, and follow the jobs. The Mac still does all the work – the app on the Vision Pro only sends your choices to the Mac and shows what the Mac says.

What you need

• A Mac with AVP Play from version 1.5.4 – download it here. Everything under Setup works as usual.
• The Mac and the Vision Pro on the same Wi-Fi.
• AVP Play open on the Mac.

Get the app

AVP Play Remote is not in the App Store. AVP Play installs it for you:

1. In AVP Play, open the tile AVP Play Remote at the start of Games – or the Remote Control page.
2. Click Install. AVP Play downloads the newest version of the app's source code, builds it with your Apple team, like a game, and puts it on the Vision Pro. That takes about half a minute; you can follow it under Jobs.

When there is a newer version of the app, the tile says Update available – click Update. AVP Play itself does not need an update for that.

With a free Apple team the app counts towards the three apps such a team may have on the Vision Pro, and it opens for seven days – then click Install Again, like for a game.

Switch it on and pair

1. On the Mac, choose Remote Control in AVP Play's sidebar and switch it on. A six-digit code appears, and the addresses of the Mac.
2. Open AVP Play Remote on the Vision Pro. Allow access to the local network when asked – that is how it finds the Mac.
3. The app finds the Mac by itself and asks for the code. Type it in. That is needed only once.

After that the app connects by itself every time you open it – to the Mac you used last, or to another paired Mac that is on the network. With several Macs you switch in the menu at the top right.

The Mac does not show up? Some networks block the search (Bonjour). On the Mac tab, type in the address that AVP Play shows under Remote Control.

What you can do

Tab
Games	all games with their cover and state, with the same filters as on the Mac. A game's page has Install, Update and Download Only, and below them the options of the Mac: favourite, your own filters, version, toolchain, saved games, optional content, DLC sync, feedback and the store page
Updates	games with a newer build, and Update All
Jobs	every job; tap one for its steps, progress bars, what went wrong and its log. Cancel asks first. Clear takes finished or stopped jobs off the list
Setup, Settings	the same as on the Mac. Signing in to Meta or Steam and choosing folders still happens on the Mac
Mac	the connected and the paired Macs, the address field, where to get AVP Play for the Mac – Send to Mac passes the link on, for example with AirDrop – and Try Without a Mac

Try Without a Mac shows a demo Mac with made-up games, to look around. Nothing is installed in the demo.

Steam Workshop (Half-Life: Alyx). On the Alyx page, the section Steam Workshop has Browse Workshop …. From AVP Play Remote 1.1 and AVP Play 1.10.10 on, the Workshop opens inside the Remote. Open a map, weapon or other add-on and tap Load into AVP Play: the Mac fetches it with its Steam sign-in and copies it to the game on the Vision Pro by itself. You see the Mac's progress below the page. You can also paste a Workshop link with Add by Link or ID …, and take items off the list again. More in Games from Steam.

Installing games without a Mac (experimental)

Experimental. This is new. Not every game has been tried this way, and something may not work. Installing from the Mac stays the tested way, and a game installed on the headset can be installed again from the Mac at any time.

From AVP Play Remote 1.2 and AVP Play 1.10.16 on, the app can also do the work itself: it downloads a game from Meta, builds it, signs it and installs it – right on the Vision Pro, even while the Mac is off. The pages look the same as with a Mac.

What you need

• A paid Apple Developer Program membership. A free Apple team cannot do this.
• A Mac with AVP Play, once, to prepare the app (see below). After that the Mac does not have to be on.

Set up once on the Mac

1. In AVP Play, open the page AVP Play Remote.
2. In the box Installing Games Without a Mac (Experimental), switch it on.
3. If you like, store your Apple team key there – the box explains how to create one. You can also enter it on the headset later.
4. If the app should download games from Meta by itself, switch on Also hand over the Meta sign-in. Without it the app can only rebuild games that are installed.
5. Click Install Again. AVP Play now builds the app with the part for the headset and hands over what it needs.

Set up on the Vision Pro

1. Open AVP Play Remote and choose This Headset (without a Mac, experimental) in the menu at the top.
2. Open the Setup tab. It says what is still missing.
3. Pair: in the Vision Pro's Settings open General › Remote Devices and leave it open. In the app tap Pair and enter the code the headset shows. The first time, visionOS asks whether the app may add a VPN configuration – allow it; it stays on the headset and only lets the app reach the headset's own installation service.
4. If you have not done so on the Mac: enter the team key (the guide is on the same page).

After that you install games as usual under Games. Some games have Optional Content on their page (languages, add-on content you bought), and Beat Saber has Build with mods.

Good to know

• Games from Steam and games that are not an Android app (for example Half-Life: Alyx) are still installed from the Mac.
• Saved games are still backed up by AVP Play on the Mac when it reaches the headset – not by the app.
• After a new toolchain, AVP Play says on the page AVP Play Remote that the app has to be built again. Then click Install Again there.
• The app removes downloaded game files again once the game is installed.

Reaching the Mac with the window closed

On the Mac's Remote Control page (and in Settings) you find the menu bar switches. With Keep running in the menu bar when the window is closed on, AVP Play Remote can reach your Mac even when the AVP Play window is closed, and with Open at login also right after you sign in to your Mac (since AVP Play 1.5.7 on this page). See App Settings.

Removing a headset

On the Mac under Remote Control, Remove next to the headset. It can no longer connect until it is paired again. New Code makes the old code invalid at once.

Privacy

AVP Play Remote collects no data. It has no account, no sign-in, no analytics and no advertising, and as a remote control it talks to no server on the internet.

• It looks for Macs with AVP Play on your local network (Bonjour, _avpplay._tcp) and connects only to the Macs you paired (TCP ports 47811 and 47812).
• The connection is encrypted (TLS) with a key made during pairing that only your Vision Pro and your Mac know. It is kept in the keychain on both.
• What it shows – your games, jobs and settings – comes from your own Mac and stays on your devices. Pictures of games are kept in the app's cache on the Vision Pro.
• Only with "This Headset (without a Mac)": the app then talks to Meta itself (to check ownership and download your games) and to Apple (for the certificate, app identifier and profile of the games). Your Meta sign-in and your team key are kept in the app on the headset for that and are sent to Meta and Apple respectively, nowhere else. Ratings and notes come from AVP Play's catalogue; only the games' IDs go there.
• The links to the download page and to this wiki open in Safari.

Help

Questions and problems: open an issue on GitHub – say that it is about AVP Play Remote, and which version of AVP Play is on your Mac.