Technology

Crumbl Cookies launches an app for Apple's Vision Pro headset

Customers will be able to order cookies with their eyes thanks to Apple’s cutting-edge “spatial computing” technology.
Crumbl said it's the first food and beverage app built for the Vision Pro. | Photo courtesy of Crumbl Cookies

The world of spatial computing is here, and there will be cookies. 

Crumbl Cookies has launched a new app designed specifically for Apple’s Vision Pro, the so-called mixed-reality headset the tech giant released earlier this month. People who don the headset can use their eyes, hands and voice to interact with their mobile apps as if they’re objects floating in the room. 

The 900-unit Crumbl said it’s the first food and beverage company to have an app supported by the Vision Pro’s operating system, visionOS.

“When starting this project, we considered porting our existing iOS app to visionOS, but we learned this new platform creates a lot of new opportunities for designing and building an app,” said Colton Lemmon, senior software engineer at Crumbl, in a statement. 

That includes the Vision Pro’s sophisticated eye-tracking technology that allows users to control apps with their eyes. On Crumbl’s app, customers will use their eyes to select a cookie and drag it into their digital shopping bag, which, in Crumbl’s case, is its trademark pink box. (In Crumbl’s regular phone app, cookies simply appear in the box when they’re clicked on.)

The app features large, high-quality images of Crumbl’s cookies, taking advantage of the Vision Pro’s super high-def display. It also has express ordering, allowing customers to quickly order four- or six-pack boxes of pre-selected cookie varieties, as well as order-tracking and seamless integrations with Apple Pay and Siri. 

The app’s default fulfillment option is delivery, so customers can stay on the couch, immersed in their apps, while they wait for their cookies. Walking while wearing the Vision Pro is apparently difficult to do, and Apple says it shouldn’t be used while driving. 

It’s perhaps no surprise that Crumbl is the first restaurant chain to jump on the Vision Pro: It is a tech-forward brand, having been built around online ordering, delivery and social media from the beginning. Crumbl also likes to move fast. It more than doubled its unit count in 2022 and added another 200-plus stores last year. The Logan, Utah-based chain is known for its rotating menu of cookie flavors that is posted to social media every Sunday.

Those cookies start at around $5, while a four-pack goes for approximately $16. A Vision Pro, meanwhile, costs $3,500.

Members help make our journalism possible. Become a Restaurant Business member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.

Multimedia

Exclusive Content

Financing

In Red Lobster, a symbol of the challenges with casual dining

The Bottom Line: Consumers have shifted dining toward convenience or occasions, and that has created havoc for full-service restaurant chains. How can these companies get customers back?

Financing

Crumbl may be the next frozen yogurt, or the next Krispy Kreme

The Bottom Line: With word that the chain’s unit volumes took a nosedive last year, its future, and that of its operators, depends on what the brand does next.

Technology

4 things we learned in a wild week for restaurant tech

Tech Check: If you blinked, you may have missed three funding rounds, two acquisitions, a “never-before-seen” new product and a bold executive poaching. Let’s get caught up.

Trending

More from our partners