Technology

How to redo the Apple Vision Pro’s hand and eye tracking

If you feel like the Apple Vision Pro’s hand and eye tracking isn’t working as well as it used to, redoing it can help make navigating menus enjoyable again.

Published

7 months ago

Apr 10, 2024 05:01 AM

Web Desk

How to redo the Apple Vision Pro’s hand and eye tracking

Unlike other headsets, you don’t control Apple’s Vision Pro headset with any sort of input device. Instead, the headset tracks your hand and eye movements. When you want to select something, you simply look at it and tap your fingers together. Like Nilay Patel said in his review, it’s pretty magical — until it isn’t. And when hand or eye tracking feels off, the easiest thing to do is recalibrate it.

There are lots of reasons why you might want to recalibrate. Perhaps you bought a Vision Pro without the ZEISS optical inserts and decided later to add them. Maybe the prescription for your glasses got updated. Perhaps a friend really wants to try out the headset but doesn’t feel like schlepping to the Apple Store. Whatever the reason, here are a few ways to redo hand and eye tracking.

A woman makes a pinching gesture while wearing the Vision Pro.

Because you navigate menus via your vision and hand gestures, good eye and hand tracking is important.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Recalibrating for yourself

If you want to reset both hand and eye tracking at once, there’s a shortcut:

Put on the Vision Pro and then find the top button on the upper lefthand side of the visor. Press it four times. You’ll be asked to confirm whether you’re using optical inserts. Turn the digital crown to scroll between options, and press it to select. Follow the prompts.

You’ll be asked to do two things. First, hold out and look at your hands. Then, look at and tap several dots in a circle at various brightness settings.

Sometimes, you might not want to reset both hand and eye tracking together. The good news is you can also recalibrate each separately. To do that:

Go to Settings and scroll to Eyes & Hands.Select Redo Eye Setup if you only want to recalibrate eye tracking and Redo Hand Setup if you only want to reset hand tracking.

If wonky tracking is making it difficult to navigate menus, I recommend asking Siri instead. You can say “Hey Siri, redo eye setup / hand setup.” Keep in mind that you’ll need to have activated Siri during setup for this to work. If you haven’t, I highly suggest using the top-button shortcut so you can get to Settings > Siri & Search > Turn on Listen for “Hey Siri” or “Siri.”

A photo of a man wearing the Vision Pro, taken from the side.

Pressing the top button four times is a quick shortcut to redoing hand and eye setup in one go.

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

Recalibrating for others

Sharing a Vision Pro isn’t the easiest. The fact that it’s so personalized to one person’s vision and hand tracking is a big reason why. Who wants to constantly recalibrate every time they take the headset on or off? But if you want to demo the device for friends and family, an easy way to do it without messing up your own eye and hand tracking is by starting a guest user session.

Open Control Center by looking up. You should see a small downward-pointing arrow. Select it.Tap the Control Center icon, which is the second from the right.Select the profile icon. It’s the little person within a circle.You’ll be prompted to choose which apps they can use and whether you want to enable view mirroring. The latter will allow you to see what a guest is doing on a compatible device.When you’re ready, tap Start, remove the Vision Pro, and give it to your guest. They will then be prompted to set up eye and hand tracking for themselves. When they end the guest user session, it’ll revert to your own settings.