These are some tricks you can use to get the most out of your Apple CarPlay

There are some neat little tricks you can use to get the most out of your Apple CarPlay.

CarPlay and Android Auto have been around for a while at this point, but they’re still being tweaked on a regular basis.

With the latest version, which also incorporates iOS 26 features, you can make your life on the road a bit more comfortable.

And there’s one feature in particular that Apple says will make your life on the road a lot better.

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Some neat tricks to make Apple CarPlay work as well as possible

With the latest version, CarPlay allows you to trim and reorder your app list.

You can’t do this directly from the car, but you can do it from your iPhone too.

Head to settings, and you’ll be able to select what you want to appear on your car screen.

And don’t worry, removing them from CarPlay won’t remove them from your phone.

With iOS 26, you can also choose up to five widgets for CarPlay, making your car screen look even more like the screen of your iPhone.

There’s also a feature that provides a solution to what some people view as a problem.

That’s because some people think these big screens are distracting, which is why you can turn on ‘Driving Focus’, which temporarily mutes all notifications apart from the ones that are traffic-related.

What’s the future of car infotainment?

In the early days of infotainment screens, each automaker would come with its own system, and it was all a bit messy and fidgety.

But then Apple and Google (Android Auto) developed their own systems, and a lot of car companies decided to adopt these two options because customers wanted smartphone integration and this was the easiest path.

Mind you, that’s changing now.

These days, automakers are developing their own systems, and some of them are rejecting Apple CarPlay Ultra.

BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen – for example – have teamed up to create an alternative system.