How to add widgets to CarPlay in iOS 27, and the other CarPlay changes that work in any carHow to add widgets to CarPlay in iOS 27, and the other CarPlay changes that work in any car

CarPlay in iOS 27 can show widgets from any app on your iPhone, not just Apple's handful of built-in ones.

iOS 27 was released on 14 September. Most of its CarPlay changes need nothing more than the update on your iPhone, but two of the most talked-about ones depend on your car. Below is how to set up the widgets, and which of the other changes you can expect to see on your next drive.

How do you add widgets to CarPlay?

The setting is on the iPhone rather than the car's screen. According to MacRumors' guide:

• Open Settings on your iPhone and go to General, then CarPlay
• Tap your car in the list
• Tap Widgets, then Add Widgets, and choose from the widgets your apps offer
• Drag widgets to change the order, or tap one to remove it
• Use the Smart Rotate and Widget Suggestions switches on the same screen to let CarPlay change what it shows

Any widget an app offers for the iPhone Home Screen is eligible, as long as it is compatible with CarPlay.

What else works in any CarPlay car

Audio gets two changes. The Now Playing screen has a progress bar you can drag to any point in a song or podcast, where before you had to skip repeatedly or reach for the phone. A mini-player also keeps the artwork and controls in the top-right corner while you move around audio apps, 9to5Mac says. In Apple Music, you can filter the library by categories such as Favorites or All Playlists, and MacRumors says Apple has opened that to other music apps.

CarPlay also gets the new wallpaper design shared across iOS 27 and macOS 27, in a range of colours; the outlets give different counts. Apple says wireless CarPlay is more reliable and that GPS accuracy and navigation heading are better. These are changes on the phone's side, so older cars benefit too. Apple Maps' natural language search works through Siri in the car, so you can ask for a route that avoids tolls or motorways.

Siri AI works in CarPlay, with back-and-forth conversation that syncs to the Siri app on the iPhone. It needs an iPhone that supports Apple Intelligence and a place off the Siri AI waitlist, which you join in Settings, then Siri. Siri AI only gains more languages in the iOS 27.2 beta, and the EU is still excluded, which limits who gets this part.

What needs your carmaker

Two features do nothing until a manufacturer adds support. Video apps need the car to be certified for AirPlay video, and play only while the car is parked, as we covered when Apple opened CarPlay to third-party video apps. Route sharing, which sends navigation and EV charging stops to the car's own screens and instrument cluster, also depends on the car. MacRumors said in September that no manufacturer had announced support for video, and we have not seen one since.

Our take

Widgets are the change that alters what CarPlay is for. Until now the dashboard showed what Apple chose: a calendar, the weather, what is playing. Now a parking app, an EV charger's status or a delivery tracker can sit beside the map without the driver opening anything. Whether that helps depends on app makers building widgets that are readable at a glance. A widget designed for a Home Screen at arm's length is not automatically safe to read at 70 miles an hour, and Apple's Smart Rotate setting suggests it knows that.

The audio scrubber is the change people have asked for longest, and it is the least glamorous. APPDOOK's view is that iOS 27 is a good CarPlay release for the cars already on the road, and that the headline features, video and route sharing, are really announcements for cars that have not been built yet. If you have wireless CarPlay and found it unreliable, it is worth trying again before buying an adapter like the AirFly Drive.