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Apple CarPlay is no longer a luxury feature reserved for high-end cars. Nowadays, even the most affordable vehicles in India offer a built-in infotainment system, making it effortless to connect your iPhone to your car.
With Apple CarPlay, your car and phone sync seamlessly, allowing you to focus on your driving without being distracted. In this article, we explore what Apple CarPlay is, what devices it supports, and how to set it up.
Launched in March 2014, CarPlay is a piece of software that allows your iPhone to connect seamlessly to your car and display its apps on the car’s interface in a simplified iOS-like way. This means you can use some apps straight from your car. Stuck in a maze of narrow streets? Apple Maps and Google Maps will show you the way out on the car screen. Can’t get enough of that catchy song and want to replay it without touching your phone? CarPlay will do it for you.
Essentially, CarPlay makes sure that you keep your eyes on the road and your hands on the wheel. It’s not an operating system by itself installed on your car, but rather a platform that enables a car’s infotainment system to be a display and controller for an iOS device.
As already stated, the goal of CarPlay is to reduce the usage of your phone while driving. You can still make calls, send texts, listen to music, check your calendar, and find your way around, but without fiddling with your phone. CarPlay uses your car’s screen and speakers to show you a familiar interface that looks like your iPhone. It also overrides some of your car’s native features, such as Bluetooth or navigation, so you can enjoy a fluid experience.
For example, if you want to call someone, you can use CarPlay to access your contacts, favourites, and recent calls. You can also use voice commands or buttons on the steering wheel to dial a number. The call will go through your car’s speakers and microphone, just like with Bluetooth, but with (arguably) a better-looking interface.
GPS navigation on CarPlay works similarly, displaying your phone’s installed map apps regardless of whether your car has a built-in navigation system.
CarPlay is super easy to set up, with or without a wire.
If you have a wire, make sure it has a USB plug on one end and a Lightning plug on the other. Upon connecting, you’ll see some prompts on your car’s screen and your iPhone. Just say yes to them and you’re good to go. Once this process is complete, you won’t have to repeat it – all you’ll need to do to connect is to plug the cable into the iPhone.
If you want to go back to your car’s normal screen for whatever reason, look for a button or icon that says something like “Exit CarPlay” or “Switch to Car”. Tap it and you’ll be back to where you started.
But wires can be cumbersome, and that’s probably why vehicles are increasingly ditching cable in favour of wireless Apple CarPlay. Whether it’s the Hyundai i20, Hyundai Verna, Nissan Magnite, or Kia Sonet, all these vehicles now feature wireless Apple CarPlay.
To use wireless CarPlay, you need to activate the voice command button on your steering wheel and switch your stereo to wireless or Bluetooth mode. On your iPhone, enable Wi-Fi and tap the CarPlay network. Make sure Auto-Join is on. Then, go to CarPlay settings and choose your car. If you get stuck, check your car manual for help.
The only catch is that wireless CarPlay won’t charge your iPhone, so you might want to bring a cable anyway. But if your car has wireless CarPlay, it probably has wireless charging too, so you can still keep your battery full without plugging into anything.
The purpose of CarPlay is to keep your eyes on the road and not on the phone. But if you end up getting distracted by the car’s infotainment screen anyway, dangerously reaching for it to perform actions while driving, then that purpose is beaten.
Helping with this predicament is CarPlay’s built-in Siri support. The digital assistant can help you type texts while driving, in a way that’s similar to taking a hands-free call. When you receive a text message, you’ll see a notification on the car’s infotainment screen. Siri will read it out for you when you tap it. You can also dictate your message for Siri to transcribe and send.
Besides sending texts, you can ask Siri to play your favourite music, podcasts, or audiobooks, get directions and traffic updates, make phone calls, and more. Siri can also suggest shortcuts based on your routines, such as playing your morning playlist when you start your car. And with the new Siri Suggestions app on CarPlay, you can see personalised recommendations for places to go, things to do, and people to contact.
One of the greatest advantages Apple’s CarPlay has over Google’s Android Auto is SharePlay – a feature that basically puts an end to passing around the phone and arguments over what song to play next in the car. SharePlay lets you and your passengers create a shared playlist on Apple Music.
When in the Apple Music app, you’ll see a new SharePlay icon in the top-right corner. Tap it to reveal a QR code, which can be scanned by passengers with their iPhones. All passengers who’ve scanned the QR code will be able to add to the queue. It’s like having a DJ in every seat.
Nearly every car sold in India now has Apple CarPlay, with many of them also supporting it wirelessly. One of India’s most affordable cars, the Maruti Alto 800, comes bundled with CarPlay and it’s only logical to think that every pricier car on the road supports it too.
Meanwhile, on the other end, CarPlay is compatible with all iPhones from the iPhone 5 onwards running iOS 7.1 or later. iPads are not compatible and Apple has given no indication of any interest in changing that.
Apple unveiled the future of CarPlay at WWDC 2022, showcasing a deeper integration with vehicle functions such as A/C and FM radio, multiple display support across the dashboard, customization options, and more. The first vehicles to feature the next-generation CarPlay experience will be revealed in late 2023, with over a dozen automakers on board.
This upcoming version will go beyond the current one and encompass vehicle functions like radio and temperature controls. Moreover, the update will allow personalisation options from widgets to choosing from various gauge cluster designs to suit the driver’s preferences.
