iOS 26 to Upgrade CarPlay in Two Ways

[jayducharme]

I'm all for the large text option.

 

[ignatius345]

With the update, the feature will be able to provide a notification if it hears a crying baby inside the vehicle.

About time. Every time I park and forget a window is open, babies will find their way in and start building their little nests.

 

[brijazz]

Hopefully they fix their 'feature' they changed where you have Siri read a text message, the on-screen menu options on the screen instantly change once Siri is done reading (Reply turns to Call, or something).

Agreed – this is a terrible design. I got my first Carplay vehicle a couple of months ago and the first time I tried to tap 'Reply' it must've changed to 'Call' a microsecond before my finger landed. Transforming buttons suck.

 

[crisneat]

What? First, consistency isn’t CarPlay’s greatest strength. Hands free access to a lot of your phone’s capabilities on a large screen is its greatest strength. Second, should Apple fail to innovate with car brands that are willing to give it deeper access because other brands won’t? I love CarPlay on my 2018 Impreza. If some new cars get features that I don’t, good for them, but I’ll continue appreciating what I have.

Totally fair to appreciate what current CarPlay offer, it’s functional, stable, and widely adopted. But fragmentation isn’t just about new features for premium cars. It sets the stage for abandonment. Apple has a well known pattern of cutting off updates for older devices after a few years. If that logic extends to CarPlay, standard versions could quietly be deprioritized fewer updates, less support, and eventually left behind.

That’s a serious issue when you consider most people keep their cars for 10–15 years. A dashboard running unsupported software isn’t just outdated it could be insecure, incompatible with future iPhones, and damaging to the long term value of the vehicle. Fragmentation it’s a warning sign.

 

[brijazz]

I'd be happy if they provided the option to reply to a text message via voice, not tapping the screen (like how it works on AirPods). You'd think this would've been a day one feature, but here we are.

 

[CasinoOwl]

How does the sound recognition work? Is the phone itself always listening for things?

Yes, in the same way it's always listening for "Hey Siri".

 

[Liam555]

Remove full screen calls. Add the ability to pinch and zoom while using Waze and add a find my app on carplay and I'll be happy.

Maybe the ability to search for music using a keyboard for a passenger would be nice.

 

[Liam555]

Remove full screen calls. Add the ability to pinch and zoom while using Waze and add a find my app on carplay and I'll be happy.

Maybe the ability to search for music using a keyboard for a passenger would be nice.

Oh and I wish notification wouldn't block your car when using maps!

 

[golfpro411]

I wish they would let you rearrange the way the windows are. On a vertical screen I hate how the maps is at the top. Rather have it vertical than horizontal.

 

[Nekronos]

I don't want full screen incoming calls. There have been so many times when I'm trying to get to the right exit then get a call and can't see the navigation.

Yeah makes absolutely zero sense for this to be the default behavior - at a minimum the ability to change default behavior would be welcome.

 

[Moondougie]

While the spotlight has been on CarPlay Ultra lately, the regular version of CarPlay is set to receive some enhancements alongside iOS 26.

Apple will announce iOS 26 at WWDC 2025 next week, and the software update is expected to upgrade the CarPlay experience in at least two ways.

The first iOS 26 beta should be seeded to developers shortly after Apple's keynote, and the update will likely be released in September.

There will likely be more CarPlay changes alongside iOS 26 — these are just the known ones.

New Design

9to5Mac this week reported that at least some of iOS 26's rumored design changes will extend to the CarPlay interface, which would make sense.

iOS 26 is expected to feature a sleeker, glass-like design with added translucency for app icons, menus, buttons, and other elements.

Sound Recognition for Crying Babies

CarPlay gained support for Sound Recognition with iOS 18 last year. The accessibility feature can alert drivers or passengers who are deaf or hard of hearing to horns and sirens outside of the vehicle, such as from a police car, ambulance, or fire truck.

Last month, Apple previewed new accessibility features coming in iOS 26, including an expansion of Sound Recognition for CarPlay. With the update, the feature will be able to provide a notification if it hears a crying baby inside the vehicle.

Apple said CarPlay will also be getting a Large Text option, which has long existed on iPhones.

Article Link: iOS 26 to Upgrade CarPlay in Two Ways

I REALLY wish they’d add Find My to CarPlay.

 

[LlamaLarry]

In their defense it became all the rage for ever larger old school GPS screens to get wider than taller, which made as much sense there as it does on CarPlay.

 

[johntherazz]

I like the way CarPlay lets me interact with my iPhone apps in the car, but it's always seemed strange to me that while it's illegal to use my phone while driving, CarPlay still encourages me to interact by prodding the screen. If only Siri wasn't quite so useless a primarily voice-activated front end would have seemed to be the way to go

 

[Robert.Walter]

I still wish ya could quickly glance at a large text message... I know, I know, safely blah blah blah but I don't need Siri having to ready a quick one liner text that takes no more of my attention than looking at the map or music... also gotta say I love CarPlay in my 2017 Honda civic cus it isn't crippled like it is in some cars where ya can barely use it while the car is in drive.

My sister is still sour that after calling Honda HQ in California, and the technical staff confirming they had tested CarPlay in the 2015/6 models by loading the s/w in via a stick, and telling her CarPlay would become available in the 2016 Fit via a firmware update (and she bought the car) decided not to offer said firmware update.

 

[Robert.Walter]

I like the way CarPlay lets me interact with my iPhone apps in the car, but it's always seemed strange to me that while it's illegal to use my phone while driving, CarPlay still encourages me to interact by prodding the screen. If only Siri wasn't quite so useless a primarily voice-activated front end would have seemed to be the way to go

Maybe because the dash screen, unlike the phone, is a large stable target, can't be dropped or fumbled, and has a limited number of apps.

Also, by allowing CarPlay, it likely reduces the temptation for folks to hold their phones while driving.

 

[Ta_whirimatea]

All they have to do to car play is make it show ALL the downloaded music on my iPhone via the cars screen. Then I won’t be a driving hazard whilst having to scroll on my phone to get to the album I want instead of simply doing it via my thumb on my steering wheel. Why should I have to pull over every time I want to choose an album. Just ‘make it work’.

While they’re at it they need to make it not automatically play an album that I purchased which isn’t on my phone. Every bloody time I plug in I get the same yoga meditation album for my wife starting up, It doesn’t meditate me!!!

 

[hagar]

Like get rid of calendar as being a default?! Who wants that?

I do.

There’s a feature in Maps where the next destination is automatically suggested based on your behaviour. But it doesn’t work. So I need to open my calendar to navigate to my next appointment.

 

[hagar]

All they have to do to car play is make it show ALL the downloaded music on my iPhone via the cars screen. Then I won’t be a driving hazard whilst having to scroll on my phone to get to the album I want instead of simply doing it via my thumb on my steering wheel. Why should I have to pull over every time I want to choose an album. Just ‘make it work’.

While they’re at it they need to make it not automatically play an album that I purchased which isn’t on my phone. Every bloody time I plug in I get the same yoga meditation album for my wife starting up, It doesn’t meditate me!!!

What I want is even more simple. I want to randomly play the music downloaded on my phone. I can’t get Siri to do that. Ever.

 

[Martinpa]

CarPlay’s strength has always been consistency across brands. With CarPlay Ultra reserved for premium vehicles, Apple risks creating a two tier system, innovation for a few, maintenance mode for the rest.

In a safety critical environment like the car, that kind of fragmentation is pretty inconvenient

As far as I know, CarPlay Ultra is in no way reserved for premium brands (Some of the new features of Ultra do depend on a fully digital instrument cluster, which you do not find at every trim level for every car, but are in no way limited to premium brands). At the moment, only premium brands are offering it, but if I recall, most vehicles that offered vanilla CarPlay at first were also premium (not all, but most). With time it became more and more ubiquitous, but it took quite a while. Hopefully the same will happen with CarPlay Ultra, and I hope most manufacturers will not limit it as much as what I’ve seen from Aston Martin (specifically from a customization perspective — some of the instrument cluster setups they showed when they first introduced what became CarPlay Ultra were far more interesting to me than what I’ve seen in the Aston Martin)

 

[sbailey4]

Is it a legal requirement for a phone call to take over the whole CarPlay screen, just thought it would better if it took up a small section of the screen - like it does on iOS when the iPhone is unlocked.

You can just tap on a different application and it'll go away but still keep you on the call.

Remove full screen calls. Add the ability to pinch and zoom while using Waze and add a find my app on carplay and I'll be happy.

Maybe the ability to search for music using a keyboard for a passenger would be nice.

While it does start full screen, you and tap the lower left icon (under the apps) to split the screen and send it back to a "widget" on the screen along with maps, music playing, etc. Would be nice is it could default that way though.

 

[Logan Six]

Totally fair to appreciate what current CarPlay offer, it’s functional, stable, and widely adopted. But fragmentation isn’t just about new features for premium cars. It sets the stage for abandonment. Apple has a well known pattern of cutting off updates for older devices after a few years. If that logic extends to CarPlay, standard versions could quietly be deprioritized fewer updates, less support, and eventually left behind.

That’s a serious issue when you consider most people keep their cars for 10–15 years. A dashboard running unsupported software isn’t just outdated it could be insecure, incompatible with future iPhones, and damaging to the long term value of the vehicle. Fragmentation it’s a warning sign.

Could not agree more. I purchased a 2016 Honda Accord for the CarPlay. It was the first year on the Accord. Worked great for a number of years, but recently has been nothing but trouble. Screen freezes, drops calls, etc. I joined the beta program and sent in detailed reports of my problems for years. I was never responded to, and the problems persisted. Finally gave up and purchased a new car.

 

[Ralph6410]

Crying baby recognition is one of those no-brainer things that you can't believe doesn't yet exist.

So… besides trying to focus on driving while a baby is crying in the back seat

While the spotlight has been on CarPlay Ultra lately, the regular version of CarPlay is set to receive some enhancements alongside iOS 26.

Apple will announce iOS 26 at WWDC 2025 next week, and the software update is expected to upgrade the CarPlay experience in at least two ways.

The first iOS 26 beta should be seeded to developers shortly after Apple's keynote, and the update will likely be released in September.

There will likely be more CarPlay changes alongside iOS 26 — these are just the known ones.

New Design

9to5Mac this week reported that at least some of iOS 26's rumored design changes will extend to the CarPlay interface, which would make sense.

iOS 26 is expected to feature a sleeker, glass-like design with added translucency for app icons, menus, buttons, and other elements.

Sound Recognition for Crying Babies

CarPlay gained support for Sound Recognition with iOS 18 last year. The accessibility feature can alert drivers or passengers who are deaf or hard of hearing to horns and sirens outside of the vehicle, such as from a police car, ambulance, or fire truck.

Last month, Apple previewed new accessibility features coming in iOS 26, including an expansion of Sound Recognition for CarPlay. With the update, the feature will be able to provide a notification if it hears a crying baby inside the vehicle.

Apple said CarPlay will also be getting a Large Text option, which has long existed on iPhones.

Article Link: iOS 26 to Upgrade CarPlay in Two Ways

So now besides trying to focus on driving with a crying baby strapped in the back seat…. CarPlay is going to add to the frustration by telling you what you already know. Lovely

 

[Veinticinco]

I don't want full screen incoming calls. There have been so many times when I'm trying to get to the right exit then get a call and can't see the navigation.

Hands down the worst default “feature”.

 

[Veinticinco]

Personally I’d like the ability to customise the look, layout, colours etc of the CarPlay interface, for a more aesthetic integration into my car’s native menus/displays.

Such as monochrome with red highlights for my Audi, with apps grouped or even paginated, with the split according to functionality.

Not holding my breath.

 

[svish]

Only small changes other than the redesign. Waiting to see CarPlay Ultra in more car models but that will take some time.