Apple’s iOS 18 brings an array of impressive features like a new Passwords app, a fresh-looking Control Center, a personalized home screen experience, and much more. Apple didn’t mention much about CarPlay during its launch event, but iOS 18 also brings several useful additions to Apple’s in-car interface. This includes new wallpapers, Siri improvements, accessibility boosts, and others. These new additions and changes will surely enhance your infotainment experience behind the steering wheel. Read on to learn about all the new CarPlay features in iOS 18.
Accessibility Enhancements: Color Filters
Apple always prioritizes accessibility features across its devices. Now, the latest iOS 18 expands accessibility features on CarPlay with some new offerings. One of them is Color Filters, which will tint the whole CarPlay user interface based on the color you choose. This will help users with visual impairments or those who suffer from some level of color blindness. You can choose from Red/Green, Green/Red, and a Blue/Yellow filter. Also, there’s a Greyscale option for a monochrome look.
Each filter lets you choose from low, medium, and high-intensity levels so you can enjoy a more personalized CarPlay interface. Besides Color Filters, there’s another vision-based accessibility option in iOS 18 that lets you bold text across the entire CarPlay UI. This is a super-useful addition that makes text easier to read while you’re on the move.
Voice Control: A New Level of Convenience
There’s a new CarPlay feature in iOS 18 designed for people with motor or physical impairments. The Voice Control feature gives you the liberty to control all the CarPlay settings just by speaking, even without having to invoke Siri. Once enabled, you can simply navigate CarPlay by saying commands such as "Open Maps," "Go Home," "Open Spotify," "Tap Play," "Press Pause," and by saying "Tap" or "Press" alongside any other button you can visibly see on the screen.
It works fairly well and also over low-volume music. This voice command feature makes it easier for all users to interact with CarPlay without needing to take their hands off the wheel or eyes off the road, enhancing safety and usability.
Sound Recognition: Keeping You Informed
People with hearing impairments will surely appreciate the new Sound Recognition feature in iOS 18. This feature will help drivers or passengers who are deaf or hard of hearing to get notifications for driving-related sounds like sirens and car horns. When turned ON, your iPhone’s microphone will detect any sirens or horns honking around you and will display alerts on your CarPlay interface.
This addition demonstrates Apple’s commitment to making driving safer for everyone, ensuring that important sounds do not go unnoticed, especially in critical situations.
Siri Improvements: Smarter Interaction
Since Siri is getting a huge makeover with Apple Intelligence, the digital assistant also receives some minimal changes for CarPlay. The home screen and dashboard screen haven’t got any notable upgrades, but you’ll see an all-new onscreen UI when you ask Siri for weather or sports scores. Essentially, you’ll see richer Siri pop-ups right in the middle of the screen that display more graphics than before.
For instance, when you’re checking on the European Champion score, Siri will show you each team’s logo, their current score, and where they are in the game. Also, now that Siri has gained multilingual support, you can interact with her in multiple languages, which is especially useful when you switch between languages to exchange messages.
Revamped Settings App Interface
One of the biggest changes coming in CarPlay with iOS 18 is a revamped Settings app. It now has a new Siri & Suggestions icon, largely inspired by the upcoming Apple Intelligence, showing a vibrant and colorful logo. This new interface makes it easier for users to navigate and access various settings essential for an optimal CarPlay experience.
Also, for vehicles that don’t support wireless CarPlay, there’s a new Siri Response option in Settings that can help improve Siri’s audio quality. It will route audio through the media source for a better sound experience, ensuring that users receive clear and high-quality audio output while driving.
Contact Photos in Messages: Personal Touch
The Messages app for CarPlay also gets a refreshed interface. When you get a message, you’ll see the contact’s profile picture next to their name. Also, when you launch the Messages app while using CarPlay, you’ll see profile photos for all your contacts you’ve exchanged messages with. If there’s no photo assigned to a contact, you’ll see their initials or a generic avatar.
The addition of contact photos makes the CarPlay Messages app more graphical, rather than text-heavy, which makes it easy to identify conversations and enhances the overall user experience.
New CarPlay Wallpapers: Fresh Visuals
Like every year, Apple has added new CarPlay wallpapers with iOS 18. You’ll see a total of four designs, available in light and dark versions. These new wallpapers complement the stock iOS 18 wallpapers and are available in various colors like blue, purple, yellow, and grey, allowing users to personalize their CarPlay interface further.
Having visually appealing options adds a layer of customization that many users appreciate, making their driving experience more enjoyable.
Silent Mode Settings: Enhanced Control
In the Settings app, you now have a Silent Mode option that can automatically turn on/off silent mode on your iPhone when it’s connected to CarPlay. This offers a quick way to silence system sounds and other alerts from your iPhone apps when you’re using CarPlay.
This feature helps to minimize distractions while driving, allowing you to focus on the road and your driving experience.
Record Video with Audio Playback: Uninterrupted Fun
The new iOS 18 fixes one of the most annoying problems that automatically stops the audio playback when you switch to Video mode in the Camera app. Unarguably, that was a nuisance when you’re using CarPlay. Thankfully, that’s a thing of the past now.
Apple’s iOS 18 adds a feature in the Camera app Settings so you can choose whether you want the audio playback to pause or continue playing when you start recording in Video mode. This is one of the best CarPlay features in iOS 18 for users who love shooting videos on their iPhones when CarPlay audio playback is active.
Next-Gen CarPlay: Future Insights
While iOS 18 brings some new features to CarPlay, people are curious to know about the next generation of CarPlay. Apple announced it a few years ago, but we haven’t seen any visible adoption so far. The first models with next-gen CarPlay are expected to arrive by the end of 2024, but they will be exclusive to luxury cars and a few mass-market models.
The next generation of CarPlay is teased to provide new alerts such as when an EV has finished charging. Also, vehicle functions like temperature and radio controls will be controlled right from CarPlay. There will be personalized options so a user can enjoy the best of their car and their iPhone.
That’s everything new with CarPlay in iOS 18. Apple will release the final version of iOS 18 in a few weeks, alongside the new iPhone series. Right now, these CarPlay updates are under beta testing. If you wish to try these CarPlay features right now, you can install iOS 18 Public Beta on your iPhone.
