The Best Apple CarPlay Apps for Your iPhone
Provided that you own a car or stereo unit that is compatible, Apple CarPlay presents a convenient solution for navigation, messaging, and music playback while driving. In order to fully leverage this feature, it is advisable to have apps that support CarPlay installed on your iPhone.
Outlined below are some of the most noteworthy Apple CarPlay apps that are highly recommended for use.
A quick note about Apple CarPlay
Regrettably, only a limited assortment of iOS apps are compatible with CarPlay, with the majority fitting into one of three categories: audio, navigation, or messaging. This means that there is often considerable overlap, so you may not need to install too many of these apps. For instance, there's no need to install Spotify if you already use Apple Music. With iOS 16, CarPlay will soon add support for fueling and driving apps, such as those that assist in finding cheaper gasoline prices or verifying toll rates. However, as of the present, these features are not yet supported.
We will begin by discussing the most valuable built-in CarPlay apps to ensure that you understand how to utilize them, followed by some of the finest third-party apps available for CarPlay. If you use a different audio or navigation service than what we highlight, it's likely that it is also available for CarPlay. Adding apps to CarPlay is straightforward: simply install the app on your iPhone as you typically would and go through any initial setup steps. If the app is compatible with CarPlay, it will display in the list of apps on your car's screen after you connect your device to your vehicle.
Best built-in apps
Let us begin by reviewing the most valuable apps that come pre-installed on your iPhone and are compatible with CarPlay.
Apple Maps
If you don't have a preferred navigation app, Apple Maps functions admirably with CarPlay. Upon launching it, you'll be presented with an overview of your location. Tap on Destinations, and Maps will recommend places based on your current location or recent messages and emails. The Search function enables you to quickly locate gas stations, restaurants, and other places.
You can use the microphone button on your steering wheel or tap the Microphone icon on the screen to navigate with Siri.
Phone
CarPlay integration of the Phone app enables you to make and receive calls while driving. Upon opening the app, you can browse through your contacts, launch a dial pad, review recent calls, or check voicemail. However, scrolling through a list of contacts or using a dial pad while driving is risky. Thus, it is safer to use Siri integration by saying "Call Jane Doe" or a similar command.
Messages
The Messages app provides a secure way to chat while driving. Tapping a conversation will prompt the most recent messages to be read aloud. Moreover, you can dictate a new message using voice commands. To use the app without opening it, say "Text Jane I'll be home in 15 minutes" or "Read my latest text messages."
Apple Music
Playing the right music can make your drive more pleasurable. You can use the Music app with CarPlay to access the entire Apple Music catalog if you're a subscriber, or to listen to anything you've purchased from iTunes. Upon opening the app, you can browse through your library and playlists. Additionally, it's easy to request Siri to play your favorite artists, albums, genres, and more.
Podcasts
If podcasts are more your style than music during your commute, the Podcasts app lets you access shows you've subscribed to on your iPhone. With Siri, it's easy to play your favorite podcasts or skip ahead to the next episode with commands like "Play X Podcast" or "Skip ahead two minutes."
Best third-party apps
Although the built-in apps are limited, there are some third-party apps available that work with CarPlay. These apps can be accessed through the CarPlay home screen and can be controlled using Siri for hands-free use. Additionally, car manufacturer apps that allow control of the vehicle's features can also be used within CarPlay. When using CarPlay, you'll notice an app with your car's make; selecting this will allow you to return to the car's infotainment system.
Waze
Beginning in iOS 12, third-party navigation apps became available for use with CarPlay, including Google Maps and Waze. Waze stands out for its unique feature of community-sourced information, which includes alerts about nearby speed traps, construction zones, and obstacles on the road. If you're not satisfied with Apple Maps, consider giving Waze a try.
TuneIn Radio
For those who prefer listening to the radio while driving, TuneIn Radio is a great option available on CarPlay. With over 100,000 radio stations from around the world, you can easily browse and listen to your favorite stations. You can even save your preferred stations on your phone before driving for quick access.
Audible
For those who love listening to audiobooks while driving, the Amazon Audible service is an excellent option. With a subscription, you can download and keep one book each month, with a wide selection of genres to choose from. If you prefer, you can also buy books individually, although it may be less cost-effective. Once you have downloaded your audiobooks, you can easily play them through the Audible app on CarPlay. Just make sure to save them offline while on a Wi-Fi connection to avoid using data on the road.
WhatsApp is among the limited number of third-party messaging applications available in CarPlay. After opening it, you can choose to have unread messages read aloud or dictate a new message. Moreover, all the voice commands you might expect are present, allowing you to have Siri read your incoming messages and respond using your voice. With the application installed, you will also see WhatsApp notifications on the CarPlay home screen, unless you are in Focus mode.
Spotify
Spotify is a popular music streaming service that offers CarPlay integration for its users. With the app installed on your iPhone, you can easily access your playlists and saved music through the CarPlay interface. Simply ask Siri to start playing a specific album or genre, or use the app to browse and choose what you want to listen to. Spotify also offers a wide range of podcasts, making it a one-stop-shop for audio entertainment. However, to enjoy an ad-free experience, save music offline, and disable shuffle mode, you'll need a Spotify Premium subscription.
Elevate your drives with Apple CarPlay
While the list of CarPlay-compatible apps is limited, there are still a number of useful options available for music streaming, messaging, and navigation. Whether you prefer Apple's built-in apps or third-party alternatives, CarPlay makes it easy to safely use your iPhone while driving. As CarPlay continues to grow in popularity, it's likely that we'll see even more apps added to the platform in the future.
Advertisement
Really the only thing I dislike about MacOS as a whole is the way Apple updates the OS with huge update file downloads. Actually 700Mb is small compared to some Apple has released which are in the gigabyte size. These large file sizes also translate to long update times as well.
I like Emre, Onur, Shaun and Eray’s articles more, Ashwin and Martin are always complaining about something instead of getting excited and sharing their excitement with the world.
Ever since I started bookmarking their pages my mood has been so much better, I’m glad to be free of the depressing vibe the two of them have. Damn it feels good to just enjoy life and not look for things to complain like I used to while I were under their influence.
Personally I really like @Ashwin and @Martin articles both equally. Please respect the authors.
You realize that none of the authors you like are real people, right? They are AI bots ‘writing’ articles that are basically taken from product advertisements (e.g., “Get Protected the Right Way With Avast Free AntiVirus” Really?) So, yes they are excited, but the excitement comes from advertising copy. No real world negativity from those sources.
My approach is to use a UBlock Origin filter to block all the articles except those by Martin and Ashwin. It has made the site readable again for me.
I would like to achieve that as well. Mind sharing some UBlock tricks & tips? :)
@ Anonymous,
Go to this link from yesterday https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4573146 and scroll down to the post by “Anonymous said on September 2, 2023 at 1:33 pm” He (or she) posted instructions on how to skip articles written by users other than Martin and Ashwin.
You might want to consider changing your name before you post to make it easier for users to identify your comments.
@Herman Cost
You can add this to your rules in uBlock Origin:
ghacks.net##.hentry,.home-posts,.home-category-post:not(:has-text(/Martin Brinkmann|Ashwin/))
@John World. Than you dude. So much better.
Why does Martin even allow this garbage to ruin his website. Every single article not written by martin and ashwin reads like sensational clickbait, I don’t care about if I should buy the latest apple product every week, new roblox cock rings that don’t pull your pubic hair, elon musk’s new body spray or whatever bullshit these bots can come up with.
I think he means your filters
+I like Emre, Onur, Shaun and Eray’s articles more
you’ve made my day
It’s not the EU’s fault that Bing is such a crappy search engine. In any event it’s built into the OS and Microsoft does its best to convince users to adopt it over Google by making it the default search tool. A great Many Windows 11 users are not technically minded and don’t know how to switch to another search engine and just accept their lot.
In any event I hope the EU Commission doesn’t allow Microsoft to pull the wool over their eyes.
Both Google and Bing are now worthless. Nowadays, Yandex is the only search engine that finds anything I’m looking for.
Try https://sear.be.
Yandex is Russian and under Putin’s control. Search results you get may not be accurate and possibly manipulated to give you a false sense of security depending on what you’re looking for.
Bing is absolutely a gatekeeper. Except for countries such as China and Russia that have their own search engines (Baidu and Yandex), most of the world’s searches relies on just two search engines: Google and Bing.
Alternative search engines overwhelmingly get their search results from Bing. DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, Qwant, Swisscows, Excite, Lycos, Yahoo, You, etc. all use Bing behind the scenes for their results.
StartPage originally used the Google search engine for it’s results, but have also started using Bing as well recently.
Microsoft also use Bing as the default search engine in Windows (such as the Start menu search, Taskbar search, desktop search bar, Edge sidebar, etc.) and use Bing as the default search engine in Edge – which is the default browser on Windows. Windows has greater than 70% desktop market share and is used by more than two billion people.
Not to mention Microsoft’s anti-consumer efforts when it comes to Bing. They have a history of malicious intent by aggressively trying to trick users who use a different search engine and browser into resetting their default search engine and browser back to Edge and Bing (by displaying unscrupulous popup dialogue boxes and full screen pages prompting the user to change their settings back to the “recommended settings” – which is Edge and Bing).
@ ECJ,
Microsoft’s Bing has managed to sidestep the EU’s Digital Markets Act for now arguing that it doesn’t qualify as a gatekeeper: https://www.computerworld.com/article/3705935/eu-lists-gatekeepers-to-be-regulated-opens-imessage-and-bing-investigations.html
The easiest way to avoid Bing is never to use Edge. It’s not mandatory and you’re free to use which browser you wish. I use Floorp myself which is a Firefox fork with many extra privacy configurations. https://floorp.app/en/download/
“A report claims that Apple is developing an affordable MacBook series”
Its is time to stop posting Rumors as reports.
Apple has already a Chrombook killer. It is called : iPad.
I can see Apple getting concerned about losing sales to Chrome OS devices. Given that K-12 kids have probably been using Chromebooks and would be familiar with that platform going off to college. I remember when Apple ruled K-12 computer rooms and because they simply out priced the educational sector. Google managed to take a huge bite out of educational market especially with COVID. I never thought iPads worked in a K-12 setting, and mac’s are too expensive. I doubt Apple can really make a MacBook below $500 which would compete with Chromebooks.
I managed hundreds of ipads for schools when I worked at an MSP – ipads are certainly OK, and boy are they hundreds of times better than Android tablets. Chromebooks suck so much, their market penetration into school system became real when schools received a bunch from government
Apple has always had great diffculty grasping what “low cost” means. I don’t have much faith in them ever generating anything that can compete with a Chromebook, but I’ll buy it if they do. I don’t want a Google OS, Windows is getting painful, and I’m tired of hearing how great Linux is from people who don’t use it.
I agree with the posters above about the usefulness of using a uBO filter to limit the posts I see on this site to those from Martin and Ashwin.
While Apple has patched iOS 16 for this, they haven’t yet indicated if they’re going to for supposedly-still-getting-security-updates iOS 12 (the latest OS option for the millions of still-in-use iPhone 6) and iOS 15 (still in use on millions of iPhone 6s to 8, which can’t be upgraded to 16).
I hope they do. Long-term support is one area where Apple phones crush Android, and it’s the #2 reason I use them (#1 is because not a privacy nightmare).
Apple has now released security updates for iOS 12 and 15 to address this issue. This is how you keep loyal customers.
Released an update for iOS 15, yes; for iOS 12, no. It’s not clear from reading their release notes if this means iOS 12 is not affected, or if they’re just not bothering.
M3 won’t move the needle much on performance. Honestly, Apple has put itself in a bind making the M1 really good. Probably the first time when Mac users can have some real lasting performance. But that also means that many won’t be persuaded to upgrade as often either. I am using a M1 MacBook Air and a M1 Mac mini and have yet to even entertain upgrading to a M2 or even a future M3 model of either because I am very satisfied with the M1 performance.
I like iPhone in general have owned iPhones for many years. But I don’t see these Apple events inspiring me to want to upgrade and spend hundreds to get what few improvements offered up.
People still watch this nonsense? As I get older technology no longer excite me.
I love it – Apple took an objectively bad thing and turned it into something people don’t hate. “It’s not that our front camera/sensors cover up screen real estate, this is uhh, a dynamic island… Yeah! It’s a feature actually, you’re lucky to have it”.
@ bruh,
I like iPhone too, but you have to be a virtual millionaire these days to own one and I don’t have the kind of money required to purchase one I’m afraid.
2015??
“Sorry Series 8, Apple Watch Series 9 is as powerful as it is handsome”
“Apple to release iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 on September 18, and macOS Sonoma on October 26”
“Apple unveils the Apple Watch Series 9 and Watch Ultra 2”
“Apple Watch Ultra 2 packs a punch to the older generation”
“Does it make sense to upgrade to iPhone 15?”
“iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max with Ray Tracing, Action Button announced”
“Apple announces iPhone 15 series with USB-C port, Dynamic Island”
Seven Applespams, all pushed out within a few hours. You should rename this site “AppleHack”.
I can’t believe people waste their money on smartwatches. The world has truly gone insane.
A total waste of money. Thats why people can’t afford basic necessities anymore. They just keep falling for Apple’s BS every year.
That is, if you don’t mind paying for Apple and their US Gestapo friends reading your most intimate data to use it against you.
> Apple also updated the macOS Sonoma 14 web page to reveal the release date of its desktop operating system. Sonoma will be released on October 26.
This is not true. The website says September 29. I have no idea where your October 26 comes from.
> Rumors suggest that Apple could announce the first M3 Mac in October, though another reliable leaker quashed hopes for any new MacBooks.
I am not aware of any _current_ rumor that suggests that there will be a M3 Mac before 2024.
Is this again an AI written article?
Just an FYI on the USB C situation.
The iPhone 15 and 15 Plus only use the USB-C end-connector. The actual cable attached to it transfers data at the many years old Lightning cable speed, which is USB 2.0 based. (Max 480 Mbits/s in ideal lab conditions.)
If you want iPhone USB data transfer at true USB 3.0 speed, then you have to pay more to buy the iPhone 15 Pro or 15 Pro Plus, which transfers data at actual USB 3.0 speed (5 Gbit/s in ideal lab conditions).
Just another example of Apple using absurd (and very mean-spirited, IMO) down-grading of their lower-priced phone hardware. I mean, who else would sell an $799+ phone in 2023, using a data port that transfers at USB 2.0 speed?
The USB 2.0 spec was published in year 2000, 23 years ago.
The USB 3.0 spec was published in 2008 and the USB C connector spec was published in 2014, tho not widely adopted til paird with USB 3.2 in 2017, fyi.
Man, I find this stuff so cringy – but obviously, it appeals to a certain type of person. I have no issue with Apple, my only issue is that every other hardware and software manufacturer seem to just be trying to copy Apple, instead of coming up with original ideas & visions. I don’t blame Apple for “innovating” in whatever direction they feel necessary, I’m just annoyed that nobody else is,,,
Android is looking more like iOS, Windows 11 is looking more like MacOS, I had to set up a “premium” high-spec Dell laptop recently at work which just looked like a knock-off Macbook. It’s just sad.
People aren’t going to buy stuff that strays too far from the norm. Take for example foldables. I haven’t seen anyone personally that has one, nor are they “taking the market by storm”.
RE: Android looking more like IOS:
That ‘Material You’ garbage is thankfully nowhere near iOS. I think you might be referring to Samsung’s UI though. They try to keep things like Apple to win over Apple users (I think anyways). If it weren’t for Samsung’s UI though, Android would be totally a non-option for me, as Material You is just plain ugly.
I agree that it’s all so cringeworthy and juvenile. I’ve never understood the attraction of Apple products.
Looking forward to Jpeg-XL going mainstream.
Modern hardware and displays need image formats supporting HDR and more than 8bit color depth.
I don’t see the big deal about iPhone 15. Only reason why I bought one was because I was tired of my small iPhone 13 Mini. Otherwise, the 15 is just another incremental upgrade. Unless you have a iPhone unsupported or broken. I think spending $800 plus for a smartphone every couple years is ridiculous.
Simple solution: power it off. Enjoy the freedom.
The longer it takes you to fix the comment problem, the greater the lack of respect for your readers.
I suspect that they are intentionally leaving commenting broken.
—
On a side note, I’ve just bought an i15Pro and I always make it a point to decline analytics, however when I checked the location settings, it had iPhone Analytics enabled. Truly angering….
This is not true.
Love wading through the ancient, 100% unrelated garbage comment muck to get to the few actually about the post. Thanks for wasting everyone’s’ time.
Why can’t you recognise how useless and annoying that crap is???
“…However, Apple’s senior vice president of Services, defended it by saying that the deal benefits users as there was no proper alternative, i.e. no other search engine offers the quality of search results that Google provides.”
“…Cue had said that he didn’t know what Apple would have done if negotiations with Google had failed, by which he had implied that Bing’s quality was inferior to its rival search engine.”
Unfortunately, they are correct. I have never liked Google as a company and have always actively tried to avoid them, however Google Search is undoubtedly the best in its field.
For years I used StartPage search, as StartPage historically used Google behind-the-scenes for their search results, but were privacy focused – this gave the best of both worlds and I was perfectly happy. However, earlier this year StartPage started using Bing as well and I noticed the decline in StartPage results pretty much straight away. It was only when I started to investigate why their results were poor I realised that they had started to use Bing as well.
The reality is Bing is a mediocre search engine and by extension all the search engines that use Bing are going to have have mediocre results too. So that sucks, with both StartPage and DuckDuckGo using Bing, it’s been necessary to start going back to using Google again for any semi-advanced search queries.
Perhaps the antitrust case will open up more competition in the search engine field and Bing will get better, however Microsoft under Satya have become super greedy, so it will likely just result in more bullshit AI and more profits for Microsoft, but Bing will continue to be an underfunded, mediocre search engine.