Improve your CarPlay experience by learning about new features and personalization settings that adapt your car’s display to your preferences and driving style.
Every modern iPhone and most cars support CarPlay (wired, wireless, or both). Although the settings and appearance of CarPlay are fine, you can customize them to suit you better. This way, you can do things quickly and safely, while focusing on the road.
Ask Siri
In addition to saying “Hey Siri” or just “Siri,” you can also use the voice assistant button if your car’s steering wheel or infotainment system has one. If it doesn’t, touch and hold square button on the screen (similar to the old iPhone 5 home button) on 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 a variety of sizes and shapes. iOS 26 has a new Smart Display Zoom option that adjusts the display scale to fit the screen content of your particular car’s display.
Go to CarPlay settings > Show and open the Smart Display Zoom change. Then, check out the CarPlay Home Screen, Messages, Maps, and other apps to see if you like the new style on the scale.
Note that the Smart Display Zoom feature is not available on all vehicles.
Set Driving Focus to work automatically with CarPlay
Driving Focus minimizes call, text, and other app distractions so you can focus on the road and reach your destination safely. You can set your iPhone to automatically turn on Driving Focus by going to CarPlay settings > Driving Focus > Activate with CarPlay.
Decide which apps will be displayed on the car’s screen and in what order
By default, all iOS apps installed on your iPhone that support CarPlay will appear on your car’s screen. But there’s a good chance you won’t find all the CarPlay apps suitable for displaying on your car’s screen, which can be confusing. For example, I don’t use Telegram, Bloomberg, or VLC on my car screen.
So go to iPhone settings > General > CarPlay > choose your car > Applicationsand tap the red delete button to remove the app from your car screen. Instead, use the green button to show it there. Use the hamburger icon to change the placement of apps, with the top ones appearing on the home screen of the car.
Add widgets
iOS 26 also lets you add app widgets to your car’s screen, so you can look up useful information without opening the app. You can display photos, reminders, calendars, music, clock, and other widgets from supported apps.
Go to iPhone settings > General > CarPlay > choose your car > Widgets to add, remove, or rearrange them.
Use different CarPlay app icons
Like the iOS Home screen, you can choose default, dark, or clear icons for your car’s screen (the colored option is not available in CarPlay).
Go to CarPlay settings > Edit Icons and choose a style.
Change the background image of CarPlay
iOS gives you many options for stocking your CarPlay Home Screen background. Just go to CarPlay settings > Wallpaper and choose one. Note that you cannot add a custom image from your library as the CarPlay wallpaper.
Use a dark or light theme for CarPlay
CarPlay is usually set to Dark Mode by default in most cars, as it is best suited for driving at night and in low-light areas. But you can set it to Light Mode or have CarPlay automatically switch between both modes.
Open it Settings on your CarPlay screen and press Appearance. Then, choose It’s Always Dark to keep it forever in Dark Mode. You can also make maps visible in Dark Mode at all times. Note that this setting does not affect your iPhone.
Make the CarPlay text bigger and bolder
The option to change the system text size has been around for a long time on iPhone and Mac. With the iOS 26 update, the same right will be added to CarPlay, so you can have a larger text on your car’s screen.
Go to CarPlay settings > Accessibility > Text Size to fix it. You can also choose to make the 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 cries and alert you. But be aware that like the Audio Recognition feature on your iPhone and iPad, this feature may not always work or be accurate.
Go to CarPlay settings > Accessibility > Sound Recognition to open it. Then turn on the sounds you want to be notified about.
Announce Messages
Siri can announce new incoming messages and read them to you. You can open it CarPlay settings > Announce Messages. You can also further customize it according to 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 normally can’t do. For example, you can ask Voice Control to tap a specific item or button on your car’s screen. And the best part, you can use it without having to disable Siri.
Use AI voice applications in CarPlay to get answers
Grok, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and several other AI apps are now available in 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 display suggestions as small banners on your car screen. If you don’t find them useful but distracting, go for them CarPlay settings > Apple Intelligence & Siriand turn off Suggestions on the Dashboard.
Turn off the 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 small and less distracting, you can turn them off CarPlay settings > Show > Show Album Art Now Playing. Turning it off will also give you simple on-screen music controls. Note that this does not apply to all vehicles.
See Live Jobs on your car screen
Live Actions from your iPhone app can appear on your car’s display so you can track sports scores, flight status, food orders, and more. You can turn it on or off CarPlay settings > Live Activities.
Enable or disable CarPlay screenshots
If you take a screenshot during CarPlay using your iPhone or Siri buttons, screenshots of both your iPhone screen and the car’s screen are saved in the Photos app.
If you find the car screenshot unnecessary, go to iPhone settings > General > Screen capture and turn off Screenshot of CarPlay.
Use iOS defaults to supercharge your CarPlay experience
You can use Apple’s Shortcuts app to configure simple defaults that can do a lot more, like automatically opening your favorite Maps app when you connect to CarPlay. Or, you can set it to automatically start playing music when you get into your car. The possibilities are endless, and you should spend a few minutes looking.
If you want more tips, go to our other guide where we cover more than 20 ways to use your iPhone in your car.