Today, in the “It should go without saying…” column, we have a recent CarPlay customization trend that is sweeping social media and, unsurprisingly, hampers readability and safe driving. Search “pink CarPlay” on TikTok and you’ll find a deluge of videos from the last six months showing off and explaining how to make the interface a rosy hue. One post we found had 545,000 likes. Some call it a hack, but it’s really just misusing the theme and color filter settings—not that the adoring commenters on TikTok and Instagram seem to care much.
What these users are doing isn’t complicated. They’re starting by selecting a wallpaper that is already kind of pink, and then enabling CarPlay’s automatic appearance that flips from light to dark mode at sundown. This, to my eyes, would get the point across, but what really sears the retinas is the next step: toggling an accessibility option for color blindness, specifically the red/green protanopia filter. It doesn’t just make the background intensely pink, but also throws off the color balance entirely with a garish, oversaturated cast.
To be clear, this isn’t some kind of new setting coming in iOS 26—this is something anyone can do in CarPlay right now, on iOS 18. And on your iPhone, by the way! Apple’s devices have all the same visual options as CarPlay, so those who are especially committed can make every screen they see the world through look mostly shades of pink. But why even stop there? Your TV’s settings menu has all those sliders for a reason. Time to find out what happens when you push ’em.
In a car, though, crushing all contrast on Waze to turn everything bubblegum-tinted is less quirky personalization and more a danger to yourself and other motorists. The people who design infotainment software tend to prioritize legibility, using colors, text, and icons to communicate things as clearly as possible, because your attention comes at a premium when you’re piloting a 5,000-pound SUV at speed.
This pretty obviously flies against those considerations; I guess these folks really love bright, loud screens in cars. One of my favorite comments was from an influencer on Instagram, who replied to the video above, “well now i HAVE TO INSTALL A CARPLAY IN MY CAR,” followed by a sobbing emoji. That’s not how any of this works, and I have questions. But if you drive something that doesn’t support CarPlay, there’s no reason to cry! Just buy a phone mount.
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