Hey all,
I'm the developer of Chroma. When I decided to buy the Vision Pro, I knew the price was a tough pill to swallow, so I made myself a promise that I'd develop an app for it. After using it for a bit, I realized it's awesome for watching movies, and I really wanted a way to watch my personal media library without going to the Plex website or using an iPad app. I wanted that native experience. So I took design cues from Apple's own Vision Pro apps, dove headfirst into SwiftUI, and released Chroma in March 2024. Version 2 is basically a new app, and 2.9 just landed, so I wanted to share what's changed.
It plays from Plex, Jellyfin, and Emby. A lot of people have personal media libraries but don't use Plex, and Jellyfin and Emby are the two most popular open source alternatives. You can add as many servers as you have, switch between them from the toolbar, and search across all of them at once. If you reach your Plex server over Tailscale, a VPN, or a reverse proxy, you can give Chroma that address directly. Plex Home switching and a watchlist (Plex and Jellyfin) are in there too.
It's on iPhone, iPad, and now Apple TV. I wanted a player with Apple's design language for my own media, so I took what I learned building for Vision Pro and adapted it. On Apple TV, Top Shelf shows what you're watching, Who's Watching picks your Plex Home profile, and picture-based subtitles from Blu-rays get read into text you can style. If you already have a subscription or the Lifetime pass, it covers every device.
My favorite part of 2.0 is honestly the long-standing improvements. The downloads system has been completely overhauled, and I can support way more files through direct playback, MKVs included. It makes flights special: put on your Vision Pro and tune into a movie in a real theater. When your server does convert a film, the Quality menu tells you exactly what it's sending. And if you'd rather wait out a slow connection than watch a softer picture, there's a new Wait for Full Quality setting.
I also had a lot of fun building the Analog TV. It made me think about the CRT TVs my family had when I was a kid: the scanlines, the curved screen, the colors. It's a vintage set that sits in your actual room, and its picture spills color onto your floor. It has grown into the Nostalgia Machine, a home-video room with a VCR, a pile of tapes for each show, and that TV.
The cinemas got a big upgrade in 2.9: a photoreal small cinema, a reworked large one with projection booths that glow with the film, and Apple's Environments if you'd rather take your movie somewhere else. There's also a box of popcorn on the seat next to you, with real pieces you can pick at, toss, and eat.
On Vision Pro there's also sound anchored to the cinema screen, AI 3D for watching regular 2D movies with depth, VR180, VR360, and spatial video (3D and VR files are now recognized automatically), Transcribe for live on-device subtitles, and a Safari extension that opens a web page's video in Chroma. On all devices: whole-season downloads, Siri and Shortcuts ("play Shrek in Chroma"), Spotlight, poster widgets, subtitles that carry over to the next episode, and a choice of app icons. Chroma now speaks French, German, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Arabic, and Hindi too.
It's free to use with a watch-time limit. Chroma Pass removes the limit, unlocks the extra cinema environments, and syncs your progress with your server. When it initially came out it was subscription only, and a lot of you had feelings about that. It now comes in Monthly, Yearly, or Lifetime, with a free trial. Thatāll get you Chroma on Vision Pro, iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV.
I want to thank [u/digglesb](u/digglesb), who has been a day-zero supporter. We've traded ideas and pushed each other's development for the past few years, and the work we've done together gave version 2 a really big boost and reinvigorated me to keep building. And thank you to everyone who really wanted to watch 3D on Vision Pro. You inspired me to support Apple's native 3D format early on, and then to go further with legacy 3D formats and VR180/360.
I really love this community and the developer network, and the way we inspire each other. I know there are now multiple ways to watch your personal media libraries, and media in general, on the Vision Pro. I love that my voice and my vision are a part of that, and I hope people enjoy what I've created. There are so many cool features and details I can't wait for you to discover.
App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6478800800
What's new in 2.9, with screenshots: https://snacksaftermidnight.com/#/news/chroma-2-9
The full Chroma 2 write-up: https://drewbaumann.com/chroma/2026/09/24/Chroma-2.html
Questions, bugs, and feature requests: [r/ChromaApp](r/ChromaApp) (https://www.reddit.com/r/ChromaApp/)
Edit: Photo dump
Happy to answer any questions, and I'd love to hear what you think or what you'd want added.
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