CarPlay is something that a lot of iPhone users take advantage of to operate their handset more safely while in the comfort of their moving or stationary vehicle.
CarPlay is excellent at what it does, but many users will attest to the fast that it’s lacking in customizability. Further, there are some features it doesn’t offer that many end users would like to have.
A couple of months ago, we showed you a free jailbreak tweak called CarPlay++ by iOS developer Dcsyhi that could be used to augment CarPlay in different ways, and now the same developer is out with a brand-new jailbreak tweak dubbed Airaw that takes this ambition a step further.
As you’ll see in the screenshot examples above, Airaw includes useful functionality such as tinkering with the wallpaper, icon layout, and Status Bar formatting, among other things. But we’ll dig into all that below.
After you install Airaw, you will find yourself with a lengthy preference pane in the Settings app where you can configure your individual CarPlay user experience however you want:
Options here include:
- Toggling Airaw on or off on demand
- Choosing the number of dashboard app rows you can have (2, 3 or 4)
- Choosing the number of dashboard app columns you can have (4, 5, or 6)
- Adjusting the size of app icons on the dashboard via a slider
- Hide app icon labels from the dashboard
- Hide app icon label backgrounds from the dashboard
- Choose a custom app icon label color via a color picker
- Hide dashboard Home Screen dots
- Choose between using a static wallpaper or a wallpaper slideshow as the dashboard background
- Choose an image from your Camera Roll if you’ll be using a custom background image
- Choose between default sizing or size to fit
- Enable or disable use of Now Playing album artwork as your dashboard background image
- Enable or disable Status Bar customization
- Configure a preferred Status Bar date and time format
All settings entered by the user will take effect on the vehicle’s dashboard display when connected via CarPlay, as you’d come to expect.
Those interested in giving the new Airaw tweak a try for themselves can purchase it for $1.99 from the Chariz repository via their favorite package manager. The tweak supports jailbroken iOS 13 and 14 devices and requires that the user has a CarPlay-compatible vehicle.
Will you be upgrading your CarPlay experience with the new Airaw tweak? We’re excited to hear what your thoughts are about the tweak in the comments section down below.