Apple kicked off its WWDC keynote this year, albeit in an remote way this time around. In its pre-recorded keynote there were a number of highlights to take from its unveiling of its suite of new operating systems, one of which is iOS 14.
iOS 14 brings a long with it a number of improvements, mostly to its home screen and widgets, which has also ushered some new improvements for Apple CarPlay too. So what’s new? Let us fill you in on what’s coming to Apple CarPlay in iOS 14.
Horizontal Dock for portrait Apple CarPlay displays
So before you all get excited that Apple has moved its status bar dock to the bottom of the screen for all users, this particular new iOS 14 feature is only available for vehicles with portrait displays, such as in some Volvos, some Android systems and other vehicles out there where the CarPlay screen is displayed in a more portrait orientation, than the common landscape view we are all mostly accustomed to.
Having a side dock on portrait screens can seem a waste of screen real-estate because the dock could have so easily been positioned at the top or bottom of the display and allow more icons to display horizontally across the screen. The dock would span the entire display from top to bottom and a stretch out the UI, leaving the three active icons floating in the middle of it.
In iOS 14, these screens will be looked after with the new horizontal dock support, which will leave the side on these kind of displays and span the whole width instead. Hopefully things will eventually look better for you guys with portrait displays.
Sadly, I can’t test this myself to show how well this looks. But look out for our other reports on what’s coming in iOS 14 and our full iOS 14 for Apple CarPlay impressions video very soon.
