{"id":16053,"date":"2026-07-09T09:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T16:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/09\/6-things-i-dont-like-about-carplay\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T00:37:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T07:37:31","slug":"6-things-i-dont-like-about-carplay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/09\/6-things-i-dont-like-about-carplay\/","title":{"rendered":"6 things I don’t like about CarPlay"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

I use CarPlay for almost all of my drives, and the important features, ie maps, music, and calls, work very well. But there are small areas where I think improvements are needed to make the experience even better.<\/p>\n

In this guide, I talk about six problems I have with Apple CarPlay.<\/p>\n

I also have some bones to pick, such as no video playback (even when the car is off) and poor voice control, but leaks suggest that these issues will be resolved in iOS 27, so I didn’t include them here.<\/p>\n

Second, I’m talking about regular CarPlay, not CarPlay Ultra (which is currently only available in a few premium cars), as I wouldn’t have had the chance to use the latter.<\/p>\n

There is not much touch on the maps<\/h2>\n

\"There<\/p>\n

One of the first things that frustrates me about using Apple Maps or Google Maps with CarPlay is having to use the four directional arrow buttons to move around the map on my car’s touchscreen.<\/p>\n

In cars like mine with a small touchscreen, zooming in and exploring the map with those four buttons feels unnecessarily cumbersome.<\/p>\n

I would like to see Apple add multi-touch support to CarPlay, as navigation is one of the most used functions on the car screen. And being able to pinch to zoom and freely navigate the map can make the experience easier and more efficient, just like in Tesla cars.<\/p>\n

Can’t remove Messages and Apple Maps from the car screen<\/h2>\n
\"Apple\"Apple
‘MediaNav’ is my car manufacturer’s CarPlay app, tapping it takes me out of CarPlay and shows the car’s infotainment system.<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By default, all installed iPhone apps with a version of CarPlay automatically appear on the car screen. However, iOS allows removing all third-party apps, as well as other Apple apps such as Audiobooks, Calendar, and Podcasts.<\/p>\n

That said, Apple doesn’t allow you to delete their main apps, which are Messages, Phone, Music, Settings, Apple Maps, and Now Playing.<\/p>\n

WhatsApp is the primary messaging app in my part of the world, and using iMessage, SMS, and RCS to communicate with friends and family is rare.<\/p>\n

But Apple is strict and does not offer a way to remove Messages from the car screen (maybe the EU will intervene, then it will).<\/p>\n

Similarly, even if you prefer Spotify or YouTube Music and don’t have an Apple Music subscription, there’s no way to remove the iOS Music app from the CarPlay home screen to do so.<\/p>\n

The same goes for Apple Maps! Why can’t I remove it? I only use Google Maps because it works in more detail in my country than Apple Maps!<\/p>\n

Now, to be honest, if my car had a big responsive touchscreen, I wouldn’t mind having unnecessary apps on there. But since my car’s screen is only 7 inches and not very responsive, I honestly hate seeing apps that never take up screen real estate.<\/p>\n

Can’t disable old widgets screen<\/h2>\n
\"Forced\"Forced
I have no way to remove or change these three widgets.<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I don’t know if this applies to all cars, but here is my gripe.<\/p>\n

Swiping left on the first page of the home screen in CarPlay reveals three widgets: Maps Suggestions, Music, and Maps.<\/p>\n

And these aren’t the new user-installed CarPlay widgets included in iOS 26. These three widgets always appear there; I don’t find them useful; I never use them; but Apple won’t let me delete them.<\/p>\n

This mandatory widget area forces me to do an extra swipe to access the CarPlay widgets I added directly.<\/p>\n

There is no option to turn off the screen fully while continuing to play music<\/h2>\n

My car’s infotainment system has a physical button that I can long press to turn off the screen, which is handy during night driving. It also has an aggressive mode where the screen is completely black with a small clock in one corner of the screen.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, using any of the above options takes me out of CarPlay. And even when I’m not using CarPlay and streaming music via Bluetooth, it stops the audio output completely.<\/p>\n

I would like it if CarPlay had an option to make the car screen completely black while it continues to play music. This would mean I could enjoy music on night drives while keeping the screen dark and not relying on my car’s crappy infotainment system.<\/p>\n

Communication problems<\/h2>\n

Despite running the same car for the past four years without any changes or updates to its infotainment system, CarPlay has always been reliable.<\/p>\n

Problems appear after an iOS software update or hardware upgrade, leading to random connection problems or requiring me to plug and unplug the cable multiple times to get CarPlay to appear on the car’s screen. Sometimes, I need to turn on my iPhone even though I’ve turned it on’Enable CarPlay While Locked<\/strong>‘ on iOS Settings<\/strong> > General<\/strong> > CarPlay<\/strong> > my car<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

And the old issue, where the music skips to the next track without playing fully to the end, continues in iOS 26.<\/p>\n

There is no keyboard input in Apple Music<\/h2>\n
\"Keyboard\"Keyboard
On-screen keyboard for CarPlay in Apple Maps, Google Maps, but not Apple Music<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I understand that drivers shouldn’t be too engaged with the screen, and typing with the on-screen keyboard is a huge distraction.<\/p>\n

That said, both Google Maps and Apple Maps allow you to type in addresses using the on-screen keyboard. But the search button in Apple Music doesn’t, and the only way to find a song is by talking to Siri.<\/p>\n

This means that if I’m using CarPlay on my iPhone and my passenger wants to listen to something else, I either have to use Siri to find that song, or they have to hold my iPhone up to their face to turn it on (dangerous), or I have to say the passcode (a huge security risk).<\/p>\n

Of course, if a passenger has an iPhone (no Apple Music subscription required), they can control music playback via SharePlay. But if they have an Android phone, the above problems are true.<\/p>\n

What problems do you have with CarPlay?<\/em><\/p>\n

Also, check out:<\/strong> Tips for customizing CarPlay for your car<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I use CarPlay for almost all of my drives, and the important features, ie maps, music, and calls, work very well. But there are small areas where I think improvements are needed to make the experience even better. In this guide, I talk about six problems I have with Apple CarPlay. I also have some […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16054,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-16053","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-how-to-tips"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16053"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16055,"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16053\/revisions\/16055"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.runwayritz.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}