Apple knows CarPlay is clunky to use despite consumers being infatuated with the software. The electronics giant aims to cleanup the bloat later this year.
On Monday, at the company’s World Wide Developers Conference known as WWDC, Apple announced the iOS 26, the next-generation operating system for the iPhone. Part of iOS 26 is an overhaul to how Apple CarPlay, the smartphone mirroring software that extends the experience to your modern vehicle’s infotainment system, looks and operates.
TL;DR: CarPlay is about to become less annoying and Apple might have just shown automakers, again, how much better it is at designing software, even for a vehicle.
Apple said CarPlay is used over 600 million times a day.
The new iOS 26 software will bring a redesigned interface, which Apple dubbed “liquid glass,” to the car’s infotainment display for a seamless look and feel.
The icons now morph between light and dark mode, just like an iPhone.
When a call comes in the entire screen won’t be overtaken with an accept or decline button, rather the interface acts like an iPhone with a small window popping up alerting a call is coming in with buttons to answer or decline the call.
For people that simply can’t wait to text until they are done driving, Apple’s brought the ability to send a tap back, which is the ability to respond to a message with things like a thumbs up or question mark, via the touchscreen. In messages, certain conversations can now be pinned to the top of the screen.
Apple’s brought widgets to CarPlay for a quick way to glance at information, notably, while driving. Apple didn’t detail fully which widgets from iOS are ported over to CarPlay, but the announcement demonstrated widgets for the Calendar app, Apple Home app, Tide Alert app, and Weather app.
Live activities have also been ported over to CarPlay enabling the ability to follow the latest updates on a flight arriving with Aunt Jenny while driving to the airport, all on the vehicle’s infotainment screen in real time.
Apple noted for developers the same widgets and live activities that have been created for the iPhone’s iOS will work in CarPlay. It’s implied these widgets and activities will simply appear in the updated CarPlay.
Apple said all of these updates have been done to “help you stay focused on the road.”
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