iOS 26: Carplay is radically transformed with a new design, widgets and unpublished functions
Carplay iOS 26: Apple adds widgets, live activities and Liquid Glass design at its car interface. © Apple
With iOS 26, freshly unveiled last night for the iPhoneCarplay is no longer waiting for the future: it installs it directly in our cars. More than an aesthetic update, Apple breathes a real logic of use: more fluid, more readable, more customizable. The era of the simple iPhone mirror is over – places an interface that finally takes the road to its account.
Those who hoped for a flamboyant revolution will be disappointed – so much the better. Because what iOS 26 brings to Carplay is precisely the opposite: continuity, but with style and common sense. The new interface adopts the visual language Liquid Glass of iOS 26: subtle reflections, reactive icons, textured buttons … The result is elegant, but never invasive.
Three themes are offered: defect, black and clear. The latter plays the soaked glass card, with clear, dark or automatic variants – a “Clear Dark” option which should quickly win in lovers of night design.
The Liquid Glass in a dark theme on the new Carplay. © Apple
But the real turn is the widgets. These small modules disembark on the first home page of Carplay, well upstream of the traditional apps grid. They can come from iPhone applications, even if they do not have a carplay version, and work like their cousins in standby mode on iPhone : discreet, dynamic, and above all viewable at a glance. Everything is configured in the iPhone, via settings> General> Carplay> My car> Widgets. And on wider screens, several widgets can coexist.
Widgets finally invite themselves into Carplay. © Apple
Another important novelty: the appearance of Live Activities, which appeared with iOS 16.2in the Dashboard – the second home page, to the left of the apps grid. Following a delivery, see the estimate of a trip or the next GPS instructions becomes possible without changing screen.
The new Carplay interface. © Apple
Finally, Apple refines flagship applications. Music adopts iOS navigation, messages now allows reactions (tapbacks) and pinned conversations. Even incoming calls take up less space, so as not to hide the essentials.
Tapbacks also invite themselves into Carplay. © Apple
Carplay, used more than 600 million times a day according to Apple, becomes less a reflection of the iPhone than a driving partner. And it changes everything. Its release is expected on September 16, 2025, a few days after The Keynote of the iPhone 17which usually falls on the second Tuesday in September.
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