How to use handsfree voice control in CarPlay on iOS 26

Find out how to use the Voice Control feature in CarPlay with your iPhone running iOS 26 to navigate through apps, the home screen, and interact with your car’s screen without touching it.

First, you can already use Siri in CarPlay to play music, change tracks, adjust the volume, call someone, ask for the weather, navigate to Maps, and more.

But Voice Control can do a few things that Siri can’t, like swiping left or right on CarPlay Home Screen pages and tapping a specific button on the car’s screen.

You can activate Voice Control in CarPlay and use it alongside Siri, getting the best of both worlds. And I mean you have to keep Siri active for your sanity, because Voice Control only works when you speak certain consistent commands (and it may fail even when you repeat a little). Conversely, Siri can understand voice commands even if you enter them differently and naturally.

Turn on Voice Control in CarPlay

1. Get into your car and start wired or wireless CarPlay with your iPhone running the latest version of iOS 26 or iOS 18.
2. Open CarPlay Settings.
3. Tap Accessibility.
4. Scroll down to Physical and Automotive section and open Voice Control. You will continuously see its green icon in the CarPlay Dock/sidebar indicating that Voice Control is active and listening to voice commands.

Use Voice Control in CarPlay

After activation, you can start with “Leave home” to return to the CarPlay home screen.

Then, say these phrases or voice commands to use Voice Control in CarPlay. But remember to pause for at least half a second before speaking the next command.

Open it [app name]: Opens the application.

Leave home: Returns to the Home Screen.

go back: Returns to the previous screen (applies to applications with a back button).

Tap [item (i.e., say the button name/label)]: Tap an object on the touch screen.

This may not work on all CarPlay screens, especially cheap ones. Second, Apple says that if something is not written, you can refer to it based on its position relative to other objects. For example, if you see a row of icons without text labels, you can try “Tap first” or “Tap second” to tap the first or second icon in the row, respectively.’

One tap: Tap the touch screen. This is useful in apps like Maps, where certain on-screen controls are automatically hidden after a while.

Double tap: Double tap the touch screen. Use it to zoom in on the image on the map.

Double tap [item]: Double-tap an object on the touch screen.

Swipe left or Swipe right: Swipe between CarPlay Home or CarPlay Dashboard pages.

Swipe up or Swipe down: Navigates up or down the list.

Turn left, Turn right, Turn upor It went down: Use it to navigate on the map or in other supported applications.

Open Siri: Activates Siri

Stop listening: Pauses Voice Control so it doesn’t think of your spoken words as commands.

Start listening: Restarts Voice Control

Turn off Voice Control

Saying the command ‘Stop listening’ only prevents Voice Control from doing what it hears. But it continues to listen, so it can hear your ‘Start listening’ command if you choose to continue using it.

If you don’t want to use Voice Control at all, go back to CarPlay Settings > Accessibility and turn off Voice Control.

Using Voice Control in maps and music apps

Maps and Music are the top two Apple apps used in CarPlay, and for obvious reasons.

If you want to tap something by name or label using Voice Control, just say “Tap [text shown as the name/label of the button].”

If the button doesn’t have a name or you don’t know what to call it, use the button names in the image below. These images are screenshots from Apple.

Voice Control Based

Voice Control is available in the following languages. Note that we only mentioned English voice commands above. For specific instructions in other supported languages, visit Apple’s support page for this topic, click on the current country name below, and select yours.

• Arabic (Saudi Arabia)
• Cantonese (country of China)
• Cantonese (Hong Kong)
• English (Australia, Canada, India, United Kingdom, United States)
• French (France)
• German (Germany)
• Italian
• Japanese
• Korean
• Mandarin Chinese (Mainland China and Taiwan)
• Russian
• Spanish (Mexico, Spain, and the United States)
• Turkish

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