Master Apple CarPlay With These 14 Hidden Tips

Without a doubt, Apple CarPlay is far better than the ordinary infotainment system most options we have today. While it’s not a standalone system, CarPlay seamlessly integrates your iPhone with the already-available infotainment system in your car. It lets you control everything with just your voice, access your favorite apps, and allow other iPhone users in the car to play and control music and more.

In this article, I’ll share some of my favorite CarPlay tips and tricks to enhance your driving experience. Let’s dive in!

1. Customize CarPlay apps and home screen

Just like the Apple Watch, Apple allows you to decide which supported third-party app you want to add to your CarPlay home screen. While you must have been using CarPlay for a long time now, most of you may not even know there are many apps on your iPhone that you can use while driving other than the ones already appearing on the home screen.

Here’s how you can add other remove apps from the Apple CarPlay home screen:

1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone, and tap on General.
2. Here, locate and tap on CarPlay.
3. Next, select your Paired Car from the list.
   
   
4. Now, tap on Customize.
5. To remove the app from the CarPlay home screen, tap the “–” button before the App’s name, then tap on Delete.
6. To add an app to the CarPlay home screen, tap the “+” button before the App’s name.
   
   

2. Change wallpapers

While Apple still doesn’t let you use a custom photo as your CarPlay wallpaper, it does offer multiple pre-available options.

Here’s how you can change your CarPlay wallpaper:

1. Connect your iPhone to your Car via CarPlay.
2. Now, open the Settings app in CarPlay.
3. Here, locate and tap on Wallpaper.
4. Next, choose one of the available Wallpaper options.

3. View more apps on larger screens

With iOS 18.4, CarPlay now shows a third row of app icons if your car has a larger infotainment display like the 14-inch screen in the Toyota Tundra.

You can now view twelve apps, up from eight. This reduces the need to swipe between pages. Right now, the feature is enabled by default on supported vehicles.

4. Enjoy spatial audio while driving

With iOS 18, Apple brings spatial audio to CarPlay, delivering a more immersive and dynamic in-car listening experience. Your car’s sound system must support multichannel audio to use spatial audio in CarPlay.

1. On your iPhone, go to Settings > Apps > Music > Dolby Atmos, and select Always On to enable spatial audio with Dolby Atmos.
2. Plug in or wirelessly connect your iPhone to your CarPlay-enabled vehicle.
3. Open Apple Music or another supported app and play songs or albums marked with the Dolby Atmos or Spatial Audio badge.

This feature works best with newer car models and premium audio systems designed to handle spatial sound. I use this Driving in Spatial Audio playlist on Apple Music to enjoy my road trip more.

5. Set the default navigation app (Only in the EU)

If you are not keen on Apple Maps, you may set third-party navigation apps like Google Maps as your default. So, if you tell Siri to display directions to a location, it will launch the navigation in your default app.

To change your default app, head to Settings on your linked iPhone, choose Apps and tap Default Apps. If you’re in the EU, you will see the Navigation category. Select your preferred navigation app there.

6. Control your CarPlay with voice commands

iOS 18 introduces Voice Control to CarPlay, enabling hands-free navigation and app management without relying on Siri. This feature is particularly beneficial if you prefer or require an alternative to touch controls.

To enable voice control in CarPlay:

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Navigate to Accessibility.
3. Toggle on Voice Control.

After enabling Voice Control, you can use voice commands to control CarPlay. For example:

• Say “Open Music” to launch the Music app.
• Say “Go Home” to return to the CarPlay home screen.
• Say “Tap Back” to navigate to the previous screen.
• Say “Tap [item]” to select a specific item on the screen.

Tip: Similar to this, you can use other accessibility features such as Color Filters, Sound Recognition, and Bold Text in your CarPlay.

7. View updated EV routes in Maps

iOS 18.4 enhances Apple Maps for electric vehicle (EV) users by providing a wider selection of charging stations when displaying directions right within CarPlay. The latest update adds Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS) Superchargers.

Therefore, if you own a Ford Mustang Mach-E, F-150 Lightning, or Porsche Taycan vehicle, you can better plan your trips by considering your vehicle’s charge level and NACS charging station availability. This method is best suited for extended trips, avoiding guesswork and range anxiety.

To get updated EV routing:

1. Open Maps on your connected iPhone, tap on your profile picture at the bottom and select Vehicles.
2. Now, tap Connect Your, select Connect, and hit Share Vehicle Data.
3. Finally, tap the Choose Networks button to select your preferred charging network. Ensure that you select a NACS fast charging station, such as a Tesla Supercharger.

Now, when you plan a route in Apple Maps, type in your destination. Apple Maps will now compute a route that includes recommended charging stops depending on your battery level and driving conditions. You can also see real-time availability and charging speeds at a station.

With iOS 18.4, Apple also provided a new API for developers to integrate sports apps to CarPlay. This will let you check live sports scores from your favorite sports app while on the go.

8. Switch between wired and wireless connection

Depending on your car’s make and model, you can use CarPlay via wired and wireless connections. While the wireless option seems faster and more tempting, you may experience latency issues while using Siri and changing songs. Wired mode, on the other hand, has no such issues.

Here’s how I switch use both modes per my convenience:

• I use wireless mode during short travels when I have to get in and out of the car multiple times.
• Wired mode during long travels when I don’t exit my car for a long period and let my iPhone get charged with fast-charging support.

Also, if your car does not support wireless CarPlay, there are many after-market CarPlay adapters available that you can install in your car.

9. Use dark mode

Although CarPlay is set to automatic mode for switching between light and dark modes by default, you can set it to dark mode permanently. The dark mode is very useful when experiencing glare from your car’s infotainment screen at night or in dark, cloudy weather.

Here’s how you can switch between the modes:

1. Open the Settings app in Apple CarPlay.
2. Here, tap on Appearance.
3. Next, choose between the Automatic and Dark options.

10. Enable Driving Focus

The Driving Focus enhances your in-car safety by allowing you to focus fully on the road ahead and not get distracted by incoming calls, messages, and notifications on your iPhone. You can activate Driving Focus directly from the CarPlay settings or via your iPhone, and you can even set it to enable automatically as soon as your iPhone gets connected to CarPlay.

While not getting distracted by incoming calls and messages is important, there are a few contacts from which you can not ignore calls and messages. In that case, you can even customize the Driving Focus to allow calls and messages from specific contacts by heading to Settings on your iPhone so you don’t miss anything important.

11. Announce messages

If you don’t use Driving Focus, all the messages you receive will appear on the CarPlay screen, but reading them isn’t feasible while driving, let alone safe. So, to make things easier, you can make Siri read messages aloud to you, and you can reply to those messages with your voice.

To allow Siri to announce messages from supported apps,

1. Go to Settings → Notifications → Announce Notifications.
   
   
2. Select the CarPlay-supported app → toggle on Announce Notifications.
   
   

Now, connect your iPhone to CarPlay, go to Settings → Announce Messages → ensure Announce Messages is ON.

12. Use SharePlay

If you have friends like me, you are always in the tussle between who controls the music being played in the car; CarPlay has you covered with that as well. With SharePlay on Apple Music in your car, your friends can join the music queue and contribute to music playback. To do that:

1. Tap the SharePlay icon at the top right of the Apple Music Now Playing screen;
2. You will be prompted to generate a QR code.
3. Once the QR code is generated, ask your friend to scan it.
4. You will then be notified that someone wants to join your SharePlay session.
5. Once your friends join, they can add songs to the queue and rearrange it even if they don’t have Apple Music.

13. Share ETA with friends

If you are running late and have loved ones waiting for you at home, you can share your live ETA with them and let them know if there’s a delay. To do so:

1. Start navigation in Apple Maps.
2. Tap the screen and select Share ETA.

14. Find where you parked your car

It’s easy to forget where you parked your car in a flooded supermarket parking lot, but CarPlay also covers that. Once you disconnect CarPlay, move out, and lock your car, your iPhone automatically drops a pin on Apple Maps, marking the exact position of your car.

Later, when you return to the parking lot, you can simply open Apple Maps and tap the Parked Car icon. This will give you the pinned location of your car and allow you to get a turn-by-turn navigation towards your car.

Drive Smarter With These CarPlay Tips

With these CarPlay tips, you can transform your car’s infotainment system into a smart driving assistant, which enhances your safety, driving experience, entertainment on the move, and more. Apple CarPlay makes every drive smarter and more enjoyable.

What’s your favorite CarPlay feature? Do share your thoughts with fellow CarPlay users in the comments below.

Also read:

• Best CarPlay apps for iPhone
• CarPlay not working in iOS 18? 11 ways to fix it
• Wired vs. wireless Apple CarPlay: Which one is better?
• How to turn off notifications in Apple CarPlay