Photo: reddit user Smith416
Apple announced iOS 15 earlier this week, and just as expected, CarPlay has received some love too. The car-optimized experience gets a bunch of improvements that are already part of a preview currently available for registered developers.
Scheduled to launch in September for the iPhone 6s and newer, iOS 15 will overhaul CarPlay with a series of new capabilities, all of them available right in the settings screen on the head unit.
As you can see in these screenshots shared on reddit by user Smith416, the configuration menu on CarPlay now provides access to Driving Focus, a new feature supposed to control notifications while driving.
Driving Focus is an evolved version of Do Not Disturb While Driving, and it puts the user in full control over what’s happening on their phone when getting behind the wheel. Driving Focus limits notifications while driving, blocks calls from contacts who aren’t in the favorite list, and even allows others to see you are currently unavailable by simply checking out the status in apps like Messages.
Driving Focus is a great tool when working together with the new Announce Messages support, allowing Siri to read new messages as soon as they land on your phone.
The assistant was already able to read your messages, but previously, it required the user to tap the notification on the screen for the whole thing. This update makes the process more straightforward, as it can read a new message exactly when it arrives on your phone, therefore reducing the distraction behind the wheel.
And last but not least, Apple is adding a series of new wallpapers to CarPlay. iOS 14, which made its debut last fall, came with support for wallpapers, and Apple has now decided to add more backgrounds for users out there. However, a feature to let them use their own photos as custom wallpapers still isn’t available, so everybody has to stick with the backgrounds that come pre-loaded with iOS.
As you can see in these screenshots shared on reddit by user Smith416, the configuration menu on CarPlay now provides access to Driving Focus, a new feature supposed to control notifications while driving.
Driving Focus is an evolved version of Do Not Disturb While Driving, and it puts the user in full control over what’s happening on their phone when getting behind the wheel. Driving Focus limits notifications while driving, blocks calls from contacts who aren’t in the favorite list, and even allows others to see you are currently unavailable by simply checking out the status in apps like Messages.
Driving Focus is a great tool when working together with the new Announce Messages support, allowing Siri to read new messages as soon as they land on your phone.
The assistant was already able to read your messages, but previously, it required the user to tap the notification on the screen for the whole thing. This update makes the process more straightforward, as it can read a new message exactly when it arrives on your phone, therefore reducing the distraction behind the wheel.
And last but not least, Apple is adding a series of new wallpapers to CarPlay. iOS 14, which made its debut last fall, came with support for wallpapers, and Apple has now decided to add more backgrounds for users out there. However, a feature to let them use their own photos as custom wallpapers still isn’t available, so everybody has to stick with the backgrounds that come pre-loaded with iOS.
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