With each new iOS release, a few new features are added to CarPlay. However, with Apple’s lackluster performance at this year’s WWDC, many CarPlay users thought this would be the second straight year that it appeared Apple took CarPlay, one of its most widely used platforms, a bit more seriously. And new features are coming, but they just fall short of expectations.
We still don’t have custom backgrounds, only customizable ones from Apple. Widgets haven’t gotten any sort of truly meaningful update since their announcement, and have become a forgotten feature for most, and CarPlay Ultra seems to be completely dead in the water. Updating Siri might make the platform a bit more user-friendly, but in reality, CarPlay is still being treated as the red-headed stepchild of Apple’s lineup.
The last update brought big-time changes
Act II was always going to be a struggle
When iOS 26 came to CarPlay, admittedly, even CarPlay’s biggest op (me) was excited. There was a litany of new features for users to play around with, try out, and truly improve their experience on the platform. After CarPlay Ultra floundered, Apple badly needed a win on this front, and they got it last year in iOS 26. Widgets, video options (but only for a few models, as it became evident), and phone and message updates all made sense, looked good, and felt good.
That kind of performance was always going to be hard to follow up in the second act. No matter what Apple did with CarPlay in iOS 27, that task was going to be a tall one, but much like the rest of the WWDC news, all the “new features” that are promised are, in reality, just a few updates that should have been in CarPlay all along, or could have been an extension of iOS 26.
What is CarPlay getting in iOS 27
These should have been here all along
Obviously, the biggest update is the ability to allow third-party development of video streaming apps within the CarPlay ecosystem. That’s fine and dandy, but companies like Harman Automotive and other automotive software entities already offer YouTube, Netflix, and several other streaming services in their app storefronts. Again, this is a simple case of Apple playing catch-up in this space.
The other updates do look like they’ll make CarPlay a bit more user-friendly and include features like audio timeline scrubbing (finally) and a small window in the upper-right corner of the display to maintain access to the “Now Playing” feature. We’re also getting some new backgrounds and a few UI design changes, but they don’t really improve the platform’s functionality. In essence, CarPlay for iOS 27 is making an old product feel like it’s catching up to its competition, and that would be great if the competition were stagnant, but they aren’t.
What is CarPlay still missing
Android Auto still wins out in plenty of ways
There is so much more customization in Android Auto than in CarPlay that it’s almost laughable at this point. To boot, Android isn’t even as concerned with AA anymore, simply because they can instead sell an entire custom-built OS to auto manufacturers and remove the need for the service entirely. You can’t even create custom backgrounds in CarPlay, which, again, seems like an easy feature to add that simply hasn’t come to fruition yet.
Widgets rolled out with iOS 26 and led the way for me in terms of what I was excited about regarding the platform’s future. Now, nearly a full year later, they remain fundamentally unchanged from a development standpoint, and I would argue they are one of the least-used features as a result. That’s more than disappointing for a feature that, at one point, had what I truly thought was a bright future ahead of it. Finally, there’s still no satellite view in Apple Maps, which is a small rub, but one that its competitors have already figured out and implemented with success.
When could we see these features on CarPlay
Don’t hold your breath
Apple will likely not roll out any new CarPlay features until iOS 28 next year. That means that, for what will probably be an entire calendar year, CarPlay will sit in its current format, which is still markedly behind the competition in terms of customization, features, and usability. It may not be the most profitable product for Apple, and it comes with its own set of challenges based on vehicle display type, etc. But in reality, it’s still a widely used platform that deserves more attention than it gets.
Apple tvOS might be the most mistreated child in the Apple family, but if tvOS gets locked in the basement, CarPlay doesn’t get to make it out of the laundry room all that often, and neither is afforded dinner on most nights.
