Apple’s CarPlay is one of those features you probably take for granted these days. There was a time, though, when it wasn’t standard on most cars (I distinctly remember asking whether it was included in a car I was buying six years ago). Now, though, most new cars offer it, and once you’ve set it up, you probably don’t think about it much again. You plug in your phone (or connect it wirelessly), the car’s native software gets shoved aside, and Apple Maps and Spotify appear on the dash. Job done.
Except it isn’t. With every iOS update, CarPlay is updated too, with more features continually added. The latest update brings widgets, a fresh look and a handful of media and navigation tweaks. Many of the older features are easy to miss too, tucked away in your iPhone’s settings rather than on the car screen.
Here are 14 of the most useful CarPlay tips, with the exception of Siri AI as that’s worthy of its own feature. Some take seconds to switch on (quicker than finding a parking space at Tesco on a Saturday), others need a little patience, and one will stop your sat-nav drowning out the football commentary. Make all these tweaks while parked, of course. CarPlay might be smarter than ever, but it can’t get you out of points on your licence.
Related: Here are all the ways Siri AI works with Apple CarPlay – and the ones I found most helpful
Rearrange and delete app icons
CarPlay’s default app layout plays by its own rules. Whatever order your third-party apps are in, it’s unlikely to be the best. Change it to suit what you use most, and you’ll have a much calmer journey when you can find Spotify immediately.
Go to Settings > General > CarPlay on your iPhone, choose your car, then, under the Customise section, tap ‘Apps’. Drag apps up or down the list using the three lines on the right, and your car screen will update to match. Tap the red minus button to hide an app. Apple’s core apps, such as Phone and Maps, must remain, but any third-party apps can be removed, including the parking app you used once and haven’t opened since.
Add widgets
CarPlay has a widgets page, much like your iPhone’s Home Screen when you swipe too far to the left. You can add weather, your calendar and smart home controls, along with widgets from third-party apps. Don’t go overboard, though – car screens are only so big, and nobody really needs share prices on their commute.
Set up widgets on your iPhone in Settings > General > CarPlay. Select your vehicle, then, under the Customise section, tap Widgets again, as above. Use the ‘Add Widget’ option to add the ones you want, then drag them into order. On the car screen, they appear on the page to the left of your apps.
Change the look
Open the Settings app on the CarPlay screen in your car and you will find options to change the wallpaper, as well as ‘Customise Icons’, where you can set dark mode to Automatic so the screen dims at night instead of lighting up the cabin like an open fridge.
The same ‘Customise Icons’ menu also includes Apple’s new Clear style, which makes icons look like frosted glass. It divides opinion in our office, so try it and decide for yourself whether you like it. If you don’t, you can always turn it off again, unlike Liquid Glass.
Set the sat-nav volume separately
We’ve all missed the turn because we’ve muted the irritating sat-nav voice so it doesn’t interrupt our Taylor Swift listening marathon. It doesn’t have to be like that, though.
If you turn the volume knob while the navigation voice is barking orders, you change only the volume of the directions. Do it at any other time, and you’re adjusting your music. So the next time Maps tells you to take the second exit loudly enough to rattle the windows, get that knob down. You’ve got about a second, so be quick.
Share your ETA
When you’re navigating with Apple Maps (don’t hate on it; it’s better than built-in sat-nav), tap the box at the bottom that shows your arrival time. You’ll then see an option to Share ETA, where you can choose a contact to share with.
They’ll receive updates as you drive, so they know if you’re held up. You can also say “Hey Siri, share my ETA with” followed by their name. The catch is that you can’t claim you’re stuck in traffic if you’ve actually stopped for a cheeky McDonald’s.
Find where you parked
Turn on ‘Show Parked Location’ in Settings > Apps > Maps on your iPhone. Keep scrolling, it’s right at the bottom. Once it’s on, your phone drops a pin when you disconnect from CarPlay, and you can open Maps later to see where the car is. It will save you from doing laps of the multi-storey car park, pressing the key fob and listening for a beep.
If it doesn’t work, check that Location Services and Significant Locations are enabled in your iPhone’s privacy settings.
Control whether messages are read aloud
Siri reading out your texts is great when you’re on your own, but much less so when the group chat is read out while you’re taking grandma to her weekly hair appointment.
In the CarPlay Settings app, tap Announce Messages to choose whether new messages are read aloud automatically. You’ll find the same option on your iPhone under Settings > Notifications > Announce Notifications > CarPlay.
Set up Driving Focus
Driving Focus reduces notifications while you’re behind the wheel, and you can have it turn on as soon as CarPlay connects. Go to Settings > Driving Focus on your car’s display and toggle on ‘Activate with CarPlay’.
You can also access this on your iPhone by setting up a Driving Focus in Settings > Focus, tapping the ‘+’ in the top right corner, then selecting ‘Driving Focus’. From here, you’ll get a few more options, such as choosing which people and apps can still get through, as well as setting up an auto-reply so people know why you’re ignoring them.
Scrub through tracks and podcasts
The new CarPlay features that arrived with iOS 27 let you drag the progress bar on the Now Playing screen to skip through a song or episode. It works in Apple Music, Podcasts and third-party apps that support it, and it beats pressing the 15-second skip button twenty times to get past an advert. It also means that if you love one part of a song more than the rest, you can get to it quicker.
Use the media playback shortcut
Depending on your car, the latest update to CarPlay adds a play/pause control that stays on screen while you browse your library, so you don’t have to return to Now Playing just to pause a track. It’s a minor change (so small you might even miss it), but it’s useful if you’re hunting for a different playlist and the current song is getting on your nerves.
Filter your library
Scrolling through a large music library on a car screen is a slow process, and you’re supposed to be concentrating on the road.
New filter options in iOS 27 appear at the top of various screens in the Music app, though, allowing you to choose between“All” and “Favourites” for everything from playlists and artists to albums. It should make your go-to road trip playlist much quicker to find.
Send directions to your car’s built-in sat-nav
Some cars display directions from their own navigation system in the instrument cluster or on a head-up display, which can be easier to follow than glancing at the centre screen.
In cars that support it, you can now plan a route in Maps and send it to the car’s built-in system by tapping the Share icon on the CarPlay display before you set off.
Let your Apple Watch track your parked car
Your Apple Watch can remember where you’ve parked, too. Open the Compass app after you’ve left the car. It shows up as a waypoint, with the direction and distance back to it. Tap the footprints icon to start Backtrack, which records your route so you can follow it back later. It’s useful for festivals and airport car parks.
You’ll notice we’ve mentioned car parks twice now, which is probably a giveaway of how much of a problem we find them. The feature works alongside Show Parked Location on your iPhone (above), so make sure that’s switched on.
Pinch to zoom on maps
For anyone running iOS 27, it is now also possible to pinch to zoom on CarPlay maps, just as you would on your phone. This is one we have been waiting a long time for, so we thought we’d save the best for last.
Spread two fingers apart to get a closer look at a complex junction, or pinch them together to zoom out. However, your car’s touchscreen needs to support multi-touch, so some older systems won’t support it. Time to buy a new car?
Read more: Where is CarPlay Ultra? Has Apple cancelled the rollout of its next-gen car software?
