Apple Vision Pro App of the Year 2025

I take people places they can't reach.

Filmmaker. Creator of Explore POV, Apple Vision Pro App of the Year 2025. Building immersive video for healthcare, education, and conservation.

James Hustler / Christchurch, New Zealand

James Hustler filming in New Zealand

Filming on location, New Zealand

Usman experiencing Explore POV on Apple Vision Pro

Why This Matters

"I really feel like I'm in my father's legs. I feel like I'm fulfilling that goal he wanted for me - to be able to see as much of the world as I could."

Usman - experiencing mountains and kayaking for the first time through Explore POV

100K+
downloads
190
experiences
2,500+
ratings
23
countries filmed
Mental Health

"Adding Explore POV to my daily self-care routine has been one of the most important steps in my mental health journey. I'm honestly unsure if I would have made it through this year without it."

BrentC001 / App Store Review

Accessibility

"My disabled partner can travel places through your eyes and feet. Thank you for this application."

Anna Grahm / App Store Review

Essential

"This app is the reason I have the Vision Pro. I can truly escape to a cool adventure. It's effectively a better version of mindfulness."

Phillies609 / App Store Review

Game Changer

"This is quintessential to the AVP experience. This is exactly what all of us had in mind when we bought this device. Do yourself a favor and try this out ASAP!"

Dizzy_g_123 / App Store Review

“The closest thing to teleportation.”

Apple, App Store editorial

As Seen In

Detroit Click · footage
Approaching a tropical island in the Philippines

The Content

190 immersive experiences

16K resolution across 23 countries

Featured in Apple's Spatial Gallery

What I'm Building

The Product

Explore POV

190 experiences in 16K immersive video. Apple Vision Pro App of the Year 2025. People use it to escape, to calm down, to learn, and sometimes just for wonder.

explorepov.com

Healthcare

Healing

Researchers at the University of Michigan are running an early-stage study into how immersive video affects wellbeing, and Oxford University is recruiting for a study on the same question.

Learn more

Education

Learning

Bringing the world into classrooms. The School District of La Crosse, Wisconsin is the first US district deploying Apple Vision Pro at scale, with a pilot running across around 30 headsets.

Learn more

Conservation

Connection

Connecting people to places worth protecting. Guardians of Tamatea, an immersive conservation film shot in Fiordland with Pure Salt, is featured in Apple's Spatial Gallery.

Learn more
Motorhome driving along the New Zealand coast

I've been doing this since I was a teenager. At 17 I was in Thailand filming diving students underwater and turning around edits the same day. That became a career - promotional films, tourism content, adventure brands. I got good at giving people that emotional response to a place - not just showing it, but making them feel something.

In 2020 I started experimenting with immersive video and couldn't stop. I spent three years living in a motorhome, filming across New Zealand, trying to figure out how to make someone feel like they were actually standing somewhere.

When Apple launched Vision Pro, I flew to LA to get one on day one. My footage wouldn't play on it, so I figured out how to build an app - something I'd never done before. Six weeks later I had something that worked. A year after that, Apple named it App of the Year.

The app's use in mental health research at the University of Michigan was covered by CBS Detroit, and footage from the app has contributed to BBC Click. Researchers at the University of Michigan are studying how immersive video affects wellbeing, and Oxford University is recruiting for a study on the same question.

I'm still working on the same problem I started with at 17: how do you make someone feel like they're really there? And a belief that this technology can do more than entertain - it can heal, educate, and connect.

Connect

Available for podcasts, conferences, and conversations about immersive video, spatial computing, and technology for impact.

Press enquiries Headshots (zip) Award photos (zip)

James Hustler is a New Zealand filmmaker and the creator of Explore POV, Apple's Vision Pro App of the Year 2025. He films immersive video in 16K around the world, and his work is used in healthcare research, classrooms, and conservation.

exploreimmersive.com
James at 17, filming underwater in Thailand

Me at 17 - 17 years ago