Enhance your CarPlay experience by learning about new features and personalized settings that tailor your car’s display to your preferences and driving style.
Every modern iPhone and most cars support CarPlay (wired, wireless, or both). While the default CarPlay settings and appearance are fine, you can customize them to suit you better. This way, you can do things quickly and safely, all while focusing on the road.
Invoke Siri
In addition to saying “Hey Siri” or just “Siri,” you can also use the dedicated physical voice assistant button if your vehicle’s steering wheel or infotainment area has one. If it doesn’t, touch and hold the on-screen square button (which resembles the old iPhone 5 Home button) in your CarPlay dock to activate Siri. Then ask it to call or text someone, set a reminder, tell you about upcoming calendar events, and more.
Use Smart Display Zoom in CarPlay
Car screens come in different sizes and shapes. iOS 26 has a new Smart Display Zoom option that adjusts the display scale to tailor the screen contents for your particular car’s display.
Go to CarPlay Settings > Display and enable the Smart Display Zoom switch. Then, check the CarPlay Home Screen, Messages, Maps, and other apps to see if you prefer the new scaled style.
Note that the Smart Display Zoom feature is not available for all cars.
Set Driving Focus to activate automatically with CarPlay
Driving Focus cuts down on call, text, and other app distractions so you can pay attention to the road and reach your destination safely. You can set your iPhone to automatically activate Driving Focus by going to CarPlay Settings > Driving Focus > Activate With CarPlay.
Decide which apps to show on the car’s screen and in which order
By default, all iOS apps installed on your iPhone that support CarPlay will appear on your car’s screen. But there is a good chance you don’t find all CarPlay apps worthy of showing on your car’s screen, which could clutter it. For instance, I have no use for Telegram, Bloomberg, or VLC on my car’s screen.
So go to iPhone Settings > General > CarPlay > select your car > Apps, then tap the red minus button to remove an app from your vehicle’s screen. Conversely, use the green plus button to show it there. Use the hamburger icon to change the placement of the apps, with those at the top appearing on the first page of the car’s screen.
Add widgets
iOS 26 also lets you add app widgets to your car’s screen, so you can glance at useful information without opening the app. You can show photos, reminders, calendars, music, clock, and other widgets from supported apps.
Go to iPhone Settings > General > CarPlay > select your car > Widgets to add, remove, or rearrange them.
Use different app icons for CarPlay
Just like the iOS Home Screen, you can choose default, dark, or clear app icons for your car’s screen (tinted option is not available in CarPlay).
Go to CarPlay Settings > Customize Icons and select a style.
Change the CarPlay wallpaper
iOS offers multiple stock options for your CarPlay Home Screen background. Just go to CarPlay Settings > Wallpaper and pick one. Note that you cannot yet add a custom photo from your library as the CarPlay wallpaper.
Use dark or light appearance in CarPlay
CarPlay is usually set to Dark Mode by default on most vehicles, as it’s more suitable for driving at night and low-light environments. But you can set it to Light Mode or have CarPlay automatically switch between both modes.
Open Settings on your CarPlay screen and tap Appearance. Then, select Always Dark to keep it permanently in Dark Mode. You can also have Maps show in Dark Mode at all times. Note that this setting doesn’t affect your iPhone.
Make CarPlay text bigger and bolder
The option to change the system text size has long existed on iPhone and Mac. With the iOS 26 update, the same privilege is also added to CarPlay, so you can have bigger text on your car’s screen.
Head to CarPlay Settings > Accessibility > Text Size to adjust it. You can also choose to make text bold to improve legibility.
Use Sound Recognition
If your hearing isn’t perfect, your iPhone can continuously listen for car horns, sirens, or baby crying and alert you to it. But note that just like the Sound Recognition feature in your iPhone and iPad, this feature may not always work or be accurate.
Head to CarPlay Settings > Accessibility > Sound Recognition to turn it on. Then enable the sounds you want to be alerted to.
Announce Messages
Siri can announce new incoming messages and read them to you. You can turn it on in CarPlay Settings > Announce Messages. You can also customize it further as per your needs.
Control the car screen with your voice
In addition to using Siri, you can enable Voice Control in CarPlay to do things that Siri generally can’t. For instance, you can ask Voice Control to tap a specific item or button on your car’s screen. And the best part is, you can use it without having to disable Siri.
Use AI voice apps in CarPlay to get answers
Grok, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and a few other AI apps are now available for your car in voice-only mode. Just install their app on your iPhone, allow microphone access, and then you can use them in CarPlay to get answers.
Hide or show CarPlay suggestions
Your iPhone may show suggestions as small banners on your car’s screen. If you don’t find them useful but rather distracting, head to CarPlay Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri, and turn off Suggestions in Dashboard.
Turn off music album art if it’s distracting
Like other devices, album art is displayed in CarPlay when you play a song. But to keep things minimal and less distracting, you can turn it off in CarPlay Settings > Display > Show Album Art in Now Playing. Turning it off will also give you simpler on-screen music controls. Note that this doesn’t work in all cars.
See Live Activities on your car’s screen
Active Live Activities from your iPhone app can appear on your car’s display so you can keep track of sports scores, flight status, food orders, and more. You can turn it on or off in CarPlay Settings > Live Activities.
Allow or block CarPlay screenshots
When you take a screenshot during CarPlay using your iPhone buttons or Siri, screenshots of both your iPhone and car screen are saved in the Photos app.
If you find the car’s screenshot unnecessary, go to iPhone Settings > General > Screen Capture and turn off CarPlay Screenshot.
Use iOS automation to supercharge your CarPlay experience
You can use the Apple Shortcuts app to configure simple automations that can do a lot more, like auto-open your favorite Maps app when you connect to CarPlay. Or, you can set it to automatically start playing music when you enter your car. The possibilities are endless, and you should spend a few minutes checking it out.
In case you’re looking for more tips, head over to our other guide where we go over 20 ways to use your iPhone with your car.