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iOS 26.4 Adds Two New Features to CarPlay

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iOS 26.4 was released today, and it includes a couple of new features for CarPlay: an Ambient Music widget and support for voice-based chatbot apps.

iOS 26
To update your iPhone 11 or newer to iOS 26.4, open the Settings app and tap on General → Software Update. CarPlay will automatically offer the new features so long as the iPhone connected to your vehicle is running iOS 26.4 or later.

Below, we have outlined the two new CarPlay features.

Ambient Music Widget

CarPlay gained support for widgets on iOS 26. To view them, swipe right on CarPlay's interface until you reach the Dashboard screen, shown below.

CarPlay Widgets
Starting with iOS 26.4, both the iPhone and CarPlay now have an Ambient Music widget option.

Apple introduced the Ambient Music feature on iOS 18.4 last year. It offers curated playlists based on themes such as Sleep, Chill, Productivity, and Wellbeing, with no Apple Music subscription required to listen to the songs.

To add the Ambient Music widget to a CarPlay widget stack, open the Settings app on your iPhone and tap on General → CarPlay → [Your Vehicle] → Widgets → Add Widget, select the Ambient Music option, and tap on the Add Widget button.

Chatbot Apps

Starting with iOS 26.4, CarPlay supports voice-based conversational apps, according to Apple's CarPlay Developer Guide. This means that chatbots like OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's Gemini, and Anthropic's Claude will be able to extend their iPhone apps to CarPlay for voice-based conversations, should any of them choose to do so.

ChatGPT Feature
Of course, Apple's own assistant Siri remains available on CarPlay, without needing to open an app. It was recently reported that Apple is testing a new Siri app for iOS 27 with chatbot-like functionality and conversation history, so it will be interesting to see if that Siri app is available on CarPlay in a voice-only state later this year.

Related Roundups: CarPlay, iOS 26, iPadOS 26
Related Forums: HomePod, HomeKit, CarPlay, Home & Auto Technology, iOS 26

Top Rated Comments

B
biffuz
1 week ago
Is a Sleep playlist a good idea while you're driving? I prefer Metal for that :D
Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)
D
DBZmusicboy01
1 week ago
Snow Leopard is the only thing that can save iOS 26 at this point.
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
B
Brandon42
1 week ago
I still want weather radar for CarPlay. Ideally integrated with navigation.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jz0309 Avatar
jz0309
1 week ago

offers curated playlists based on themes such as Sleep, Chill,
sleep - great addition to CarPlay ...
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Vinyldust Avatar
Vinyldust
1 week ago
I'm genuinely curious to see if ChatGPT or any of them integrate into this. I find it's actually one of my primary use cases for using the voice features of the AI apps . I have a bunch of time in the car that I can either ideate or think of some questions or some thinking or some theories and have a conversation about it. Sometimes I find that I have the most time waiting at the red light or something like that to be able to do it in the car. The odd time I'll even pull it up in my lab using the hands-free system and rehearse a conversation for a meeting when I'm about to have a driver. Hopefully it can be very helpful to be able to do this natively within car play, which will arguably be way better!
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Vinyldust Avatar
Vinyldust
1 week ago

I still want weather radar for CarPlay. Ideally integrated with navigation.
This exists with carrot weather app. I use the map a lot in storms or for longer drives to see what’s ahead weather wise
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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