Today marks the release day for Apple’s latest iPhone software update. iOS 12 will rollout worldwide later today, and along with this update comes a suite of improvements for CarPlay owners. Below is a brief rundown of the highlights that come with the latest update.
Improved Speed & Start Up Times
iOS 12 may not bring a whole lot of improvements to the iPhone, but one thing Apple have done, is fine tune the overall speed of the iPhone’s operating system. It is because of this speed improvement you’ll find that navigating around Apple CarPlay and launching apps will be a little bit snappier.
Improved Animations
Apple have improved a number of transitions between screens and launching apps in Apple CarPlay. They are very subtle but they are most welcome nonetheless to help improve the slickness of Apple’s infotainment system.
Improved Apple Maps
Apple’s own navigation app has had a number of small improvements made in iOS 12. The most noticeable are the colour changes in the lower distance and time remaining bar, Apple has adopted a black with white text approach here.
Apple has also started to add extra detail to its own maps app. This is slowly rolling out in certain US cities, however it will be some time before the rest of the world relish in this extra map detail. You’ll most likely be switching to an alternative maps app by then, thanks to the major new change in iOS 12…
Third-Party Navigation App Support!!!
This is the biggest request Apple has likely received since it begun its CarPlay platform. iOS 12 will now allow its users to run other compatible navigation apps on the CarPlay display, bypassing Apple’s own Maps app entirely. Fans of TomTom, Sygic, Google Maps and Waze will be able to run these apps on the CarPlay display and have turn-by-turn audio play over your in-car speakers.
All of the these navigations apps are currently still in development, with half of them already undergoing a private beta phase. It’s likely iOS 12 CarPlay app updates for Google and Waze will ship with in the next few months, whilst is TomTom reporting that their update will be released early in the new year.
Interaction with these apps via Siri will unlikely be supported at launch, due to Apple limiting access to its Siri API with non-Apple apps. There is a work around for this, by using the new Siri Shortcuts functionality in the new iOS 12 update. This may all change in a future iOS 12 sub update or from June in the next iOS 13 betas.
A Small But Welcome Update
iOS 12 may have a small feature list for Apple CarPlay owners. However with the improved performance and boot times of apps, along with third-party navigation app support releasing in the coming months, its a small by very welcome update.
It is uncertain if we will see the rumoured (on pause) visual overhaul of the CarPlay interface in the cycle of iOS 12 micro updates. Apple may hold this one back until iOS 13, which is likely to release this time next year. However early betas will soon rollout in around June 2019, which might allow us to get our first insight into this new CarPlay interface that has been rumoured.
