Seems you don’t want an Aston Martin to have a brand new CarPlay expertise in 2025. That’s as a result of iOS 26 brings a recent coat of paint and a few new options to CarPlay for everybody.
Liquid Glass design
The obvious change is actually a brand new theme that mirrors Apple’s new Liquid Glass design language used on iPhone. In CarPlay, Liquid Glass is current from app look choices to buttons and different interface parts.
CarPlay icons now assist these look modes: Default, Darkish, and Clear. Clear is the tremendous glassy look with choices for Mild, Darkish, or Auto. The brand new Clear Darkish choice is my early favourite.
Right here’s a fast shot of the Can-Am Pulse electrical motorbike I’m testing…
Widgets can now seem on CarPlay, together with from third-party apps on iPhone that don’t have CarPlay variations. Widgets on CarPlay look rather a lot like StandBy widgets on iPhone for the reason that know-how is shared.
CarPlay widget stacks may be configured from the iPhone within the Settings app below Basic > CarPlay > My Automobile > Widgets. Along with configuring which app widgets seem, you may toggle widgets on/off, toggle wallpaper on/off, toggle widget ideas on/off, and toggle rotation on/off.
In my instance, solely a single widget stack is supported. Nonetheless, wider display screen methods can have further stacks that may be configured independently. Apple shares an instance:
With the addition of widgets, the default app grid strikes to the third CarPlay house display screen. Widgets seem on the primary, leftmost house display screen. Dashboard is second and instantly left of the app grid view. Then the app grid view begins on web page three and extends based mostly on what number of CarPlay apps are put in.
Dwell Actions in Dashboard
Talking of Dashboard, the second house display screen is the place tiles for Dwell Actions will seem when energetic, squeezing in on the underside proper aspect.
That is the half the place I’d present you the Uber Eats instance I screenshotted earlier immediately, however CarPlay screenshots at the moment are off by default. Allow CarPlay screenshots from Settings on iPhone below Basic > Display screen Seize > CarPlay Screenshots.
Luckily, Apple gives an instance of a Dwell Exercise in motion…
Extra
Different modifications embody a redesigned Music app that displays the navigational construction of the iPhone model, Tapbacks assist and pinned conversations in Messages, and extra:
CarPlay — the smarter, safer method to make use of iPhone whereas driving — is used over 600 million instances per day, and now with iOS 26, it receives updates that make it much more stunning and straightforward to make use of. The beautiful design features a new compact view for incoming calls, permitting customers to see who’s calling with out lacking key info like upcoming instructions. iOS 26 additionally brings Tapbacks and pinned conversations to Messages in CarPlay, and with widgets and Dwell Actions, customers can keep within the loop with out shedding concentrate on the highway. These updates additionally come to CarPlay Extremely, which brings the very best of iPhone and the very best of the automobile collectively for a deeply built-in, unified expertise throughout each display screen.
Listed below are extra photographs Apple gives that present how CarPlay in iOS 26 seems on various kinds of shows:
Lastly, for the Aston Martin drivers, that is CarPlay Extremely in iOS 26:
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