Apple might let you scroll with your eyes in the Vision Pro

Apple is testing a feature that will let users scroll through Vision Pro apps using the headset’s eye-tracking capability, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.

Eye-based scrolling will apparently work across all of Apple’s built-in apps, and Gurman says the company is working on letting third-party developers use the feature, too. How it would actually function is a mystery, but I could see a system where you have to look at the edge of a page long enough to start scrolling, or focusing on a UI element, then looking above or below it to move a page.

You can do a version of eye-based scrolling with the Dwell Control accessibility feature, which lets you open menus or carry out actions by briefly resting your eyes on items in your view. To scroll, you can gaze at an icon until the page scrolls a set amount — it’s clunky, and I’d be surprised if what Apple is testing works the same way. 

Apart from accessibility alternatives, other ways to scroll include the default — pinching with your finger and thumb and raising or lowering your hand — connecting a Bluetooth mouse, or using the analog stick on a wireless game controller.

Over the weekend, Gurman wrote in the subscriber edition of his Power On newsletter for Bloomberg that Apple is planning a “pretty feature-packed release” for visionOS 3, so we may hear more about this new eye-tracked scrolling feature during its June WWDC show.