4 CarPlay settings I alter to right away make it higher

Reflecting a bit, I believe Apple downplays the significance of CarPlay means an excessive amount of. The tech did get affordable consideration at WWDC 2025, together with the launch of CarPlay Ultra, but it surely performs an out-sized function within the lives of iPhone house owners. Many people depend on it not only for music and podcasts after we’re driving, however to get the place we have to safely and on-time. That may be true even if you’re accustomed to an space — lately, development lowered a serious freeway to at least one lane in my metropolis at an hour when there was nonetheless loads of visitors. The primary time I bumped into this, a 20-minute journey all of a sudden ballooned to about an hour. Popping open Apple Maps throughout a subsequent drive allowed me to take a fancy detour and make it house in affordable time.

If want be, CarPlay is usually tremendous to make use of instantly after you set it up. However if you’d like one of the best expertise, there are a selection of settings you need to change, each in your iPhone and your automobile’s dashboard. The tweaks under are those I contemplate important as of iOS 26. Your individual preferences could differ, though I encourage you to no less than contemplate these concepts.

Deleting and rearranging house display apps

Effectivity issues on the highway

That is my most essential change. For simplicity’s sake, CarPlay defaults to loading each appropriate iPhone app if you set it up in your car. The issue with that is that almost all sprint shows cannot match greater than eight or 10 icons, and every little thing else will get shoved into further house display pages.

There’s additionally no prioritization past pre-installed apps, so in the event you use Google Maps or Waze as an alternative of Apple Maps, you may need to swipe to a second or third house display each time you wish to navigate someplace. That is annoying sufficient if you’re parked, and a dangerous distraction if you’re on the highway.

Earlier than you get behind the wheel once more, clear up CarPlay by going to Settings > Normal > CarPlay > [your car] > Apps in your iPhone. Drag the triple-line icons on the correct to rearrange their precedence. As a rule, the apps you utilize most frequently ought to occupy the highest eight spots. That means, they will at all times be on the primary house display web page.

Use the crimson icons to take away as many pointless apps as doable. Don’t be concerned — you are not uninstalling these out of your iPhone, simply CarPlay. You’ll be able to at all times add them again later by returning to the underside of the Apps web page and tapping on the suitable inexperienced icons. You will have to do that whereas your automobile is off too, however if you reconnect your iPhone, any adjustments will sync mechanically.

Selecting Darkish and/or Clear look choices

Mild could have its benefits, typically

For a lot of customers, one of the best look settings — present in CarPlay’s in-vehicle Settings > Customise Icons menu — would be the Default icon set, and Auto for switching between Mild and Darkish themes. This could maintain every little thing discernible in vivid daylight, however then flip the theme over to Darkish as soon as the solar goes down. That is much less straining on the eyes, particularly if you’re looking at a navigation app.

Personally, although, I discover the Default icons boring to have a look at, and infrequently favor Darkish mode’s distinction at any time of day. If you wish to observe go well with, simply faucet each Darkish choices.

New to iOS 26 is the flexibility to decide on Clear icons. These are visually slicker than the darkish ones, for my part, however they don’t seem to be for everybody — there’s even much less distinction than the default, so some drivers could discover themselves searching too lengthy for the correct icon. Your selection of wallpaper could have an effect right here (see under). As I write this, I am experimenting with clear icons and the Auto theme mode to check if these is perhaps higher than all-dark, on a regular basis.

Selecting wallpaper

Full your customization

Wallpaper would possibly look like a trivial factor, however with iOS 26, it may possibly go a good distance in direction of making your automobile really feel like your personal. That is as a result of the replace’s Liquid Glass aesthetic turns a whole lot of the interface clear, bringing out the colour of your wallpaper, significantly in the event you pair it with clear icons (see above).

In my case, I am utilizing a gold-tinged wallpaper that matches the “desert titanium” of my iPhone 16 Pro. You also needs to have the ability to discover ones that match the colours of the iPhone 17 lineup, or in the event you’re fortunate, the inside of your cabin. Go to Settings > Wallpaper if you’re within the driver’s seat.

Whereas I am right here, I ought to gripe that Apple nonetheless has but to permit customized wallpapers in CarPlay. That is in all probability as a result of the corporate is fearful about legibility, decision, and general visible enchantment — that photograph of your associate or pet may appear good in your iPhone, but it surely may change into an outright mess on a 10-inch panorama show. If that is going to vary in iOS 27 (or another future launch), Apple will want a system to mechanically crop and scale photographs added to CarPlay, at a minimal. Some kind of monotone filter choice would possibly assist with extra chaotic photographs.

The more cash you’ve, the extra helpful it’s

One of many side-benefits of Apple’s work on CarPlay Extremely is that a few of its extra superior widgets have slid into the usual UI. These enable issues like checking the climate, viewing your upcoming calendar appointments, or accessing smart home controls with out having to cease first. I think about that for some individuals, the flexibility to lock a door or flip off lights once they’re miles away from their storage can be an actual time saver. On most sprint shows, you may entry any widgets you’ve configured by swiping to the left of your own home display.

To get began, you will should go to Settings > Normal > CarPlay > [your car] > Widgets in your iPhone. In case you add a number of widgets, you may rearrange their order, and/or activate Sensible Rotate to let your iPhone select what to prioritize primarily based on the time of day. Regardless, you may swipe up or down in your in-car widget stack(s) to vary what you are taking a look at.

That leads me to an essential observe, which is that on larger shows, you will see a number of widget stacks directly. This makes the expertise inherently higher in dearer automobiles. I am tremendous with that in my very own automobile — the one widgets I’ve added are Climate, Batteries, and Calendar, and the one one I care about more often than not is the primary one. I must know if I will be coping with rain, snow, or freezing temperatures frequently, however checking my Apple Watch’s energy can in all probability wait till I’ve arrived at my vacation spot.

One other observe is that whereas a stunning variety of third-party widgets can be found, many of those are in all probability going to be ineffective if you’re driving. Nobody actually must know who’s reside on Twitch once they’re cruising down the freeway, for instance.