One of the benefits of having Hulu and Disney+ subscriptions is the ability to link the two and watch Hulu content within the Disney+ app. However, only Hulu (No Ads) subscribers can watch Hulu content in the Disney+ Apple Vision Pro app.
Apple’s Vision Pro became available in early February, and even before then, Disney had confirmed plans to release a dedicated Vision Pro app at launch. Over the past few months, Disney has also been busy integrating Hulu content into the Disney+ app. This merging of content appears to be nearly complete, with the expectation that Hulu’s beta status will be lifted soon.
Last week, for example, Disney began updating a number of its apps to better reflect the inclusion of Hulu content. This round of updates included an update to the Vision Pro app. Last week, Disney also published a new Vision Pro help post that confirms Hulu (With Ads) subscribers are unable to watch Hulu content in the Disney+ Vision Pro app.
“If you are a Disney Bundle subscriber, your plan must include Hulu (No Ads) in order to stream Hulu content through the Disney+ app on Vision Pro.”
Disney+
Various other help pages, including the ‘Disney+ supported devices‘ help post has also been updated with similar messages.
When Disney first confirmed plans to launch a Vision Pro app, it did confirm that “Disney+ subscribers will be able to stream the entire catalog – including thousands of TV shows and films, plus access to Hulu content for eligible Disney Bundle subscribers.” Considering Hulu (With Ads) subscribers can watch in the Disney+ app on other platforms, this limitation seems to mainly only apply to the Vision Pro app.
As there is also no dedicated Hulu app for the Vision Pro yet, Apple headset owners subscribed to the Hulu (With Ads) plan won’t be able to watch any Hulu content on the Vision Pro.
“Hulu (With Ads) is not currently available to stream on Vision Pro, and the Hulu app is not currently available for this device. To watch Hulu (With Ads), please stream using a supported device,” the same help post explains.
Disney hasn’t confirmed the reason for this limitation and it currently remains to be seen if this is simply a technical issue related to ads. For example, Disney doesn’t seem to specifically note the same limitation for Disney+ Basic (With Ads) subscribers. Instead, the Disney+ Vision Pro FAQs state, “In addition to an Apple Vision Pro device, you will need a Disney+ subscription or a Bundle plan that includes Disney+.“ Likewise, Disney’s ‘Data usage and streaming quality on Disney+‘ help post makes a point to distinguish between the audio quality support for the ad and ad-free Disney+ plans when using Vision Pro.
The clear suggestion being that there are no issues with Disney+ Basic (With Ads) subscribers using the Vision Pro app. This would also seem to suggest there are no technical issues with offering Vision Pro support for ad-supported plans in general. Instead, it would appear Disney+ Vision Pro support is now considered a premium Hulu feature.
As a result, Disney+ subscribers with a Hulu subscription will need to make sure they are subscribed to the Hulu (No Ads) plan if they want to watch Hulu content on Vision Pro.
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