Apple CarPlay is pretty great. Users love it because it brings their most frequently used UI into their cars without being super distracting, to the point where automakers have faced backlash for dropping CarPlay support. However, CarPlay isn’t perfect. Some users wish it could do more, while some features could be optimized further. Thankfully, we just got our first preview of the next big update and one big annoyance is about to be fixed with the latest iPhone operating system, dubbed iOS 26.
Prior to iOS 26, when you got an incoming call on Apple CarPlay, the alert for it took up the entire screen, blocking your maps. While this makes it easy to accept or decline a call, the notification going full-screen is extremely annoying if you’re relying on directions in an unfamiliar area, and is mostly unnecessary given how almost all cars have steering wheel controls to pick up or hang up the phone, and some aftermarket head units have hard keys right on the faceplate to do the same thing.
It’s taken Apple some time, but the issue of incoming calls blocking your Waze, Google Maps, or Apple Maps directions has finally been fixed with a smaller on-screen incoming call preview box that should still let you keep an eye on navigation if you drive a car that doesn’t support CarPlay navigation functions in its instrument cluster.
Speaking of communication, while the iMessage app for iOS or Mac OS allows users to select quick reactions to incoming messages, that hasn’t been a thing in CarPlay until now. Apple officially calls these Tapbacks, and they’ll be appearing in a little bar beneath incoming message alerts. Pinned conversations also appear in the Messages app, making it easier to send a quick note to the people in your life who matter the most.
Additionally, Apple will now let CarPlay users place and interact with widgets beyond the default map, directions, now playing, and calendar ones. Apple demonstrated support for weather, calendar, and smart home widgets, but the third-party rabbit hole should go deeper as all iOS widgets should be CarPlay compatible. Live Activities also make an appearance, such as a flight tracker that seems seriously useful for airport pick-ups. There’s no sense circling the arrivals queue if a friend’s flight is going to be late, but considering reaching for your phone to track a flight on the move is dangerous and usually illegal, this should make timing pick-ups easier.
Otherwise, CarPlay for iOS 26 is dominated by what Apple calls Liquid Glass, a very Frutiger Aero/Windows Vista design approach that adds further visual separation to icons and makes sidebars and window borders translucent. In CarPlay, you really notice this new visual treatment on the quick access sidebar and on the edges of maps. It’s a look that seems like it would work great on late-2000s cars with aftermarket CarPlay retrofits, but I do have some questions about legibility, particularly with dark icons on a dark background.
While Apple CarPlay isn’t changing a whole lot for iOS 26, the changes to phone call and iMessage interaction seem welcome, and I can’t wait to try them. Expect the public beta to roll out next month, with a stable release coming this autumn, but keep in mind that iOS 26 is only compatible with iPhone 11 or newer. That’s still nearly a six-year-old phone, but given the relative reliability of Apple’s phones, I wouldn’t be surprised if some people are still doing their thing on an iPhone XR.
Top graphic image: Apple
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It’s fascinating to see people caring about the trivial things in life. I’m glad to never have to worry about Carplay.
I had an XR up until a couple months ago, when I finally replaced it with a (refurbished) iPhone 15. Along with the battery not keeping a charge very long, the storage was getting too full so I doubled it when getting my 15. Otherwise, the XR was doing fine. I wouldn’t have decided to update if those two issues weren’t happening. Although one thing I really appreciate about the 15 is the USB-C port instead of Lightning. I like Apple’s products and UI, but I hate their proprietary crap.
You do need to keep in mind, though, that Lightning came out at a time when MicroUSB B was the standard everywhere else, and those ports are AWFUL when it comes to reliability.
Lightning offered a lot of upsides to that with reversable connectors, and in someways, from a mechanical POV, Lightning is still superior to USB-C. The contacts on Lightning female ports are facing inwards from the edge of the port, and the male connector has them in the middle facing up. USB-C still has that PCB “island” in the middle that can still break on the device side, where the more likely mode of failure on Lightning is the cable side. It’s a lot easier to replace a cable than it is to have to repair the device.
That said, USB-C is too standard at this point to keep trying to push Lightning. USB-C as a connector has far more pins and is able to push far more power and speeds than Lightning can.
I agree that Lightning was great back when it was first released, but Apple should have replaced it with USB-C long ago. Macs have been using it since 2015, so you’d think that after a few years, they’d put it on the iPhone too, but they kept wanting that proprietary money, even when USB-C surpassed Lightning in performance. I can’t believe they had to be forced into adopting it by the EU. They could have had the first USB-C capable phone and set a trend like they did with the original USB-A standard back in the late 90s.
Honestly, even that is too much. First inital, last name, and phone number is all anyone needs. And if this graphic is correct, the field that shows up is too large. It needs to be smaller.
What? No! What if you have multiple friends/contacts with the same initial and last name? It’s more common than you think.
That’s literally not a thing for me. My spouse, kids, sibilings and cousins are simply in by their first name only, and I don’t have any friends with the same last name. My mom is in there as “mom”
You have multiple sets of unrelated friends with the same first initial and last name? That seems like a statistical quirk, unless they have super common last names.
I have the same F.I. and lastname as my wife, sister, and dad – so anyone who knows two of us will run into an issue. This is not uncommon. Also think about how many Smiths, Kims, Johnsons, Williams, etc there are.
That’s why I want the phone number to appear. That’s actually the most important piece of info in this situation for me. I usually know who is calling with the last 4. The name is the secondary confirmation. But other than married friends of ours, the only surnames that have multiple appearances are anyone with my wife’s maiden name or my last name, and none of those people have changed their numbers in years.
To be fair, this is only useful for long drives when I can’t answer or look at the phone for long stretches of time. Most days, I don’t even have my phone hooked up the car, and for anyone not my wife or kids the phone is silent. Most things can wait for a call or text back while I run local errands.
I feel like anybody who actually remembers another persons phone number anymore is the statistical quirk. I have my inner circle still memorized and for some reason friends numbers from 20 years ago and a couple of my old house numbers from when I was growing up.
I have been behind people in line at UPS or elsewhere when they need to provide their SO phone number and have to actually look it up. That would really worry me if they were in any kind of emergency situation
I always memorize new numbers. We were a military family, so KNOWING the numbers for the school, doctors, veterinarian, etc, was paramount. What if my mobile was dead, or out in the car, or I couldn’t find it? I call on the landline.
I mean, I still create a printed list of emergency numbers and have them by the landline. At home my mobile phone is charging in another room, because then only the people who know the landline can contact me. The mobile gets so many spam calls anymore that I can’t do my voiceover work wthout interruption. I block what I can, but its annoying. And with kids stull in school, going silent and missing an emergency call from the school would be terrifying. So we have a landline in the office/workspace. Its generally only used for work or when my wife or kids absolutely need to get ahold of me. So, in that way its very useful.
That’s why I still remember and dial numbers, because while having that landline near by is good when I need it, I also don’t feel the need to sit down and figure out program in my top ‘n’ phone numbers that landlines can store. I just memorized them
Plus, my parents and siblings haven’t changed landline numbers or mobile numbers…well, honestly, I’m the only one who moved away from ‘home’, so I think everyone else has had the same number their entire adult life, and we are all old enough to have moved out before mobile phones were ubiquitous.
So yeah, the important numbers are either legacy numbers that I already know by heart, or I make a point to memorize so that I can call even when I have dead or missing or broken mobile phone.
I see nothing wrong with any of the above. My house doesn’t have a landline but we do have an emergency list of numbers for the hospital, pediatrician, etc for our child (not in school yet so don’t have one for that).
I have a general idea of who my usual suspects from work are because I don’t typically program their numbers into my phone.
My in laws have a landline still but they got so many spam calls on that, they just put it on silent and left it plugged up in a corner.
You’re the odd man out on that one. Unless they are my wife, parents, or brother, I could not tell you any digits of anyone’s phone number.
I also have a hard time believing most people have the luxury of being that disconnected. Schools calling about children, family calling about emergencies, elderly or sick parents calling for assistance, etc. Not to mention a lot of people (though admittedly not most) will have work calls that they are expected to receive in a timely fashion.
I’m not disconnected. I work at home, for myself, so I don’t have a boss. My phone is on silent in my home studio when I record or am in a major editing project. I return all all texts and all calls that leave a voice message. I have yet to have a legit caller refuse to leave a voicemail and simply never follow up. I think its safe to assume that no voicemail = spam/scam call.
The overwhelming majority of my clients work and communication is done via email. I recently took on some new stuff for live local theater, and that’s also all email, although I will need to load in their requested SFX in person, as their workstation is not connected to the internet.
Also, I will not answer a call or text while driving. I’ll find a place to pull over safely, but I don’t talk or text while operating a vehicle. My wife is a medical examiner….and her office’s numbers show that distracted driving is the biggest thing driving an uptick in traffic related fatalities here, after decades of safety innovations drove it down.
I’ve been lucky that my kids have never gotten sick or injured at school. And my other 4 siblings live within minutes of my parents, I live out of state. They can call me anytime, night or day, and I’ll answer. But that means that somehow no one else answered…..that would be odd and unlikely.
But none of this requires the phone to be connected via bluetooth to the car. I charge it in the car. I never said it was off or that I NEVER answer the phone. I just said that for the people who matter, I recognize their number and will answer that. It will vibrate, and at my next stop, I’ll check and call back. Everyone else will have to leave a VM.
As I said, my wife and kids can get through. I forgot how I set that up, but I was able exempt or exclude certain numbers from the ‘Do not disturb’ setting. I did it with my first iPhone and the settings and everything are on the backup and carry over everytime I get a new phone.
I mean, there are very common surnames like Smith, Jones etc. And then you will have a John Smith, James Smith, Jenny Smith and so on.
If you know enough people, this wouldn’t be an uncommon occurrence.
My SE is 5 years old and still going fine (simply the cheapest, smallest smart phone I could find). None of these feature upgrades matter to me and I would be happy if the damn thing didn’t disco for 10 seconds every once in a while even though it’s physically connected, though I’m pretty sure that’s the car and not the phone as it’s a common problem with Androids as well.
It’s a USB thing. It, like Bluetooth is really not completely reliable. Cables matter (changed 3 times in my car) and don’t get me going about wireless
New cables seem to not make a difference* and the current one has just been going for a while now without issue (thankfully, as it’s slightly annoying to have to fish it through the interior so that it’s hidden). It definitely seems software related (some kind of glitch in a regular device identity confirming handshake?) because, usually what happens is: frequency of the 10-sec. disconnects increases to a point where it does it twice in a day and pisses me off, so I reset the unit and the problem mostly goes away for a while. Earlier on, it seemed to coincide with a new forced phone update harassment dropping, but that no longer seems to be the case, so I think the problem is on the car’s end.
*This is in regards to the 10-sec. disco. If the phone won’t connect or gets really fussy about staying connected, I find a good cleaning of the connector port fixes it. Every damn time, though, I curse for about 5 minutes straight thinking the port is worn out and I’m finally just going to have to get a new damn phone, which is more of a pain than it sounds as I built a cassette-like slot in the console for the phone to sit in and it’s sized pretty much exactly for this small phone with its case on as making it bigger horizontally would have meant removing one or more of the panel’s mounting tabs and I wasn’t sure if it would be a problem popping out, plus there’s an (airbag?) ECU jammed in there that restricts available space vertically. If I have to get a phone that’s more than slightly different dimensionally, I’ll have to remake the whole thing.
It’s the ‘app’ on the car side crashing. This is almost fully outside of Apple’s control though since the OEM (or whoever they hired to code it) controls all that.
Thanks, yeah, that’s what I figure. A lot of people are reporting the same thing with other phones, plus resetting the HU largely fixes the issue for a while, which wouldn’t make sense if the phone was to blame. There have been updates to the HU, but everyone who’s done them has said it didn’t fix the issue. I’m sure they added some critical unicorn emojis or something, though.
I think the most annoying part of CarPlay is the lack of integration with the vehicle (radio, hvac controls, etc)
It’s fine for what it does do, but it’s a massively incomplete solution.
I think that will still be a while away, because it requires Apple to work with nearly every single carmaker to integrate it properly.
One of the main points of CarPlay/Android Auto is that it is plug and play and it works the same in every car. To integrate vehicular functions requires quite a bit more engineering work.
I work on this stuff, so I’m well aware. I get it…and totally understand. But, as an existing solution…it is what it is right now.
So yeah, it’s good for certain things. But as an overall experience it’s lacking (and I understand why the OEMs are reluctant to give up some of that control).
But until OEM solutions get better…we’re basically left with multiple sub-par options.
Apple makes an interface for that, but it seems no OEM wants to give up control. This ‘debuted’ 3 years ago now.
https://www.thedrive.com/tech/apple-carplays-new-update-takes-over-gauge-cluster-hvac-controls
I think the pendulum is swinging back to physical controls for HVAC.
I think that’s better than using a touchscreen, much less a small one like a phone.
100%!
The best thing about the announcement of iOS 26 is that I now have a timeline to when I can expect my iPhone XR’s (I’ve been rocking mine since 2021) security updates to stop, so now I can figure out what new phone I can get. It’s totally helped with Apple not offering anything older than the 15 on their site! /s
CarPlay news is otherwise useless to me, since even though my Pioneer radio supposedly has CarPlay on it, it’s worked 0% of the time.
I’m still rocking my XR because I’ve had no reason to upgrade. Night mode photos would be nice but are hardly a must have. But Ive noticed now, especially if I’m at an event and taking a lot of photos that it kills my battery. So i expect I’ll be upgrading soon as well.
I’ve had my XR since the beginning of 2020. Besides the lower quality camera, I’ve been happy with mine as well. My max battery capacity is at 82%, but a lot of camera use does drain it faster than most other things. Now my charging port is starting to become a problem.
A really sharp, narrow toothpick and canned air are your friends. My phone spends a lot of time in my pocket, where it Hoovers up a lot of lint. A few swipes with the toothpick and a shot of air and it’s fine for a couple of months.
I have a newer iPad with the USB-C connector, and it’s been fine. But it doesn’t spend any time in my pants pocket.
Oh, my battery has been sitting at 80% charge for the past few months. I’m hoping I can get it to 79 soon. I think I’ll keep my XR for games & whatnot, but for my day-to-day life, the security updates are a bigger priority, and I’d rather have a phone that Apple will constantly keep updated for years, unlike a company like Motorola, which generally only has like 2 years of updates.
*Cries in GM no carplay/android auto situation*
To offer the ability to send an emoji, by tapping the screen, is exactly the crap we don’t need in a car distracting the driver so they can “HaHa” someone else’s text.
I hear ya, but there can be real utility in the tapback when driving.
Example: I’m trying to find parking, my friend texts that they’ll be 10 minutes late. Tap the thumbs up to acknowledge the message, but no need to call or dictate a reply.
They’re going to be late. It’s really not a priority when you’re driving.
Or you could, stop the car, and text back. Else use the voice assistant to respond back. Both of these don’t take your eyes off your driving – even if it’s a parkinglot where pedestrians seem to wander all over unpredictably.
Apple Carplay is trash for 3 reasons:
Not sure if your complaint is Apple maps (except 3, which I agree, why can’t it handle multiple language inputs?) or is it Carplay?
I’ve not used Apple Maps in aaaaaaaaaaages, and rely on Waze. I’ve not yet had a reason to go back as Waze seems far more intuitive to me.
I’ll add that compared to the Google Assistant or Alexa, Siri is usually off drinking with the autocorrect Elf. Next best thing to useless.
And CarPlay is waaaay too often completely unreliable in actually staying connected from phone to car.
Counterpoint: Waze
I don’t have those problems minus the Siri thing as I don’t use it and I wouldn’t use a bilingual feature. It’s not necessarily something you want to do on the move, but I can zoom in and out and tap directional arrows to look farther ahead. Only flashing I get is when it reverses image lighting from light to dark. I blocked the car’s light sensor (damn thing drove me nuts constantly changing the dash lighting between cavern ambiance to ow the f’n sun, it burns! whenever I passed under a large road sign, a bird shit somewhere up ahead, it noticed a cloud that it thought looked like a dragon, or it just felt like it) and that greatly reduced the number of times it changes.
Odd…..my wife’s will not pan/zoom at all.
On mine, there’s a + and – in the lower right corner in a vertical oblong. I might have to tap the screen to activate (which also brings up the annoying windows for destination entry), I can’t remember as it’s not something I use often. I think when the + – shows up and you tap it, the arrows also show up on the center of each side of the map to allow you to scroll ahead. I wonder if it’s the car instead of the phone that allows it or not as the way the GR86 interacts with the phone is different from any other car I’ve been in—including other Toyotas and Subarus—but, then, it also has actual buttons for main features and a reasonable-sized screen.
Maybe it’s just the places I’ve asked Google Maps to take me (no, not strip bars) and it has just gotten so stupid in the last four months or so. I’m back on Waze for navigation.
But I do like Google Maps for finding places I want to go and reading reviews that may reveal why I might not want to go there. Once found, I put the address in Waze and it works out well.
Apple Maps has gotten a lot better, but Waze is still my go to.
One thing I really wish Apple Maps would incorporate from Google Maps is the alternate route feature. Like when you’re driving on your chosen route, if there is an alternative, whether faster or not, it offers that up. Or even if it helps to reduce time.
I got away from Google a while back as Apple had updated their and wanted to give it a try. I used to use Waze but got sick of it trying to send me through peoples front yards to save half a minute.
I like Google for searching new places and reading reviews (like mentioned above), Apple will get you there eventually but look somewhat pretty doing it and Waze I used to use if I knew where I was already going but wanted to keep a heads up on traffic and what not
Yeah, the routing options are so easy on Android Auto to assess your options. And ditto about waze. No, waze, for the last time, driving through Gunspoint, er, Greenspoint to save a minute is NOT a better option than the toll road.
Oh, so Apple is now doing the Microsoft thing of just making up new OS Versions? Because the current production version is, checks notes; 18.5. So we’re just jumping 8 major versions ahead to try and make things seem new?
so the release number matches the year
Meanwhile, Google be like “It was the year of our Lord, Ice Cream Sandwich”
They stopped that a while ago, the latest version (that dropped today) is just Android 16. Lame.
Support for more widgets is certainly welcome! I love CarPlay but I’ve found it puzzling that there is almost no customization available, as far as that main screen.
Erm…good news…I guess?
Apple CarPlay: bringing you features Android Auto had years ago
AA has reached the point where I really hope they don’t mess with it. It does exactly what I want it to do and no more.
Which means Google will likely throw it in the trash and replace it with something like Gemini Auto because stock valuations demand everything needs AI.
I largely dropped Google ages ago after the incessantly killed off their most useful features. I loved having the customizable Google homepage dashboard circa 2010 where you could add your own RSS widgets, weather, email, etc. It was a lot like the default MSN dashboard on Edge today, except it was almost entirely curated by you, not whatever crap MSN’s AI thinks you want.
Google also had an amazing real estate tool that used Google Maps to show places for sale and rent. Much like Zillow or RedFin, but curated far more listing sources and did a better job sifting by your preferences. I used that to find my first house, but they killed that tool years ago too.
I still prefer Google Maps, but that and gmail are the only Google products I still use.
I love my Android phone and AA…but Google Maps has been killing me lately. lt’s constantly creating alternate routes in the name of saving a few minutes…but then forces those routes to everyone else using Maps thereby creating new jams and bottlenecks since everyone is using their “shortcut” (and these alternate routes often consist of mazing through side streets, without traffic signals, that really accommodate that kind of congestion).
These alternate routes inevitably end up taking longer, AND being a bigger pain in the ass to drive.
I’ve never used Waze but I’m thinking about making the switch.
Waze did the same thing. I hate it. I used to know all kinds of tricks around traffic, but when Waze exploded, all those surface streets ended up with worse traffic than the highway problem I was trying to get around.
I liked Waze years back to use if I already knew where I was going. Was really helpful to have a realistic idea what was coming ahead. Then it started to drive me through peoples front yards to save half a minute and that’s when I got away from it.
The Apple map does show traffic conditions and will reroute. It’s fairly good at it, but has weird preferences for certain routes when traffic is lighter that don’t appear to change the ETA—or even saves me a minute—when I ignore that particular direction and it recalculates for what I know is the better real world route. Like, if I’m on I95N west of Boston, it tries to send me up Rte 3 to I495N, but the better route at most times I’m traveling that way barring a crash is to continue to I93N. The section of I495 I’d travel through is infested with doped up cambered Acuras wandering slowly all over lane markings or methed-out drivers in modded older Hondas, newer Hondas whose drivers think they’re outrunning cops in an action film, and bitsa Altimas/G35s with the best discount Ebay exhaust they could have someone put on for them weaving through traffic at 3-figures, plus a lot of dump trucks and surface transitions that has them throw gravel up when they pass over them. Of course, I don’t expect the software to know that, but that the ETA either doesn’t change or even drops slightly when I don’t take it is a puzzler for me and there are a couple others. Normally, it’s NBD, I ignore it and it recalculates the better route, but that has meant getting caught in an odd-event traffic build up a couple times that it, of course, didn’t indicate until it recalculated.
Sounds a lot like driving in and out of Atlanta. It does show upcoming traffic jams and what not but I guess the thing I liked about Google was that it showed you the options of alternative routes and you could choose between it, whether it was faster or slower. Apple seems to stick you with whatever it wants sometimes. Maybe I am wrong or just haven’t ever noticed it when it changes though?
Mine gives several options with the different routes outlined on the map for you to pick one of, but there’s a primary highlighted default option you can set by category and that will be the one that’s a 1-touch option. Normal default is fastest route and another one is to avoid highways, which I choose when I tow my utility/kayak trailer (it’s fine on the highway, but I prefer to stay off when practical). Those are the only two I’ve used, but shortest distance is another and there might be more. It’s also got biking and walking settings. I think they used to suck in the past, but competitors made them improve and they don’t really seem any worse than any other at this point, though I’m not a particularly heavy user, so YMMV.
When you first punch in a destination and before hitting go, yes. I am talking about while driving and the route conditions change, having the option to choose a different route without shutting down the navigation and start again.
I have used the less turns several times. Avoid toll roads when I have more time to get somewhere and want to take the more scenic route.
Waze is owned by Google. It had a noticeable decrease in quality after the acquisition.
Let’s not act like Android and Android Auto haven’t been cribbing features for years from Apple, too. It’s like, both of them get hammered for ‘not having feature X that the other’s had for a while now!’ but then they implement it and get hammered for ‘OMG they just stole feature X from the other one!’