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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-26.4-Feature.jpg

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.jpg

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.jpg

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.

Article Link: iOS 26.4 Adds Two New Features to CarPlay
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2026/03/24/ios-26-4-adds-two-carplay-features/
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Reactions: Z-4195 and ikir
Nice to see some updates for CarPlay, especially the widgets. If you've never used them before they're a nice way to play some music with one tap and can be customized to trigger any playlist.
 
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Ambient music widget addition is good. Don't see the need for chatbot apps but no complaints if more options are available.
 
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ShivneelSingh said:
This is what I’ve been saying! iOS 26 is just annoying and Mac OS26 is a battery hog. I don’t know if it’s just me but I feel like the text is less crisp on Mac OS26.
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I know slightly off topic but I've noticed the text oddity too. However I'm always happy to see development gains w/CarPlay
 
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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!
 
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Vinyldust said:
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!
Click to expand...
I’m hoping Google uses it for their Gemini iOS app.
 
B4U said:
Sleep music?
Really?
Is it like we do not have enough bad drivers that are moving a 2 ton hunk of metal harming others? 🤣
Click to expand...

It’s true, the default playlist is sleep music. Kind of weird. It can be changed but you have to tap on the words that don’t look like an option.
 
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Reactions: B4U
Grok in a Tesla is... a surreal experience. It's easier to setup multi-stop routes (ie, "route to grammy's house, stop somewhere for milk on the way") using Grok than using any other UI. I've heard people ask it for narrated tours which they say it does an ok job of but... I haven't tried myself.
 
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Reactions: nospleen and freedomlinux
Just let me see more than 10 or so albums, artists etc in music or Qobuz while the car is in motion. This damn nannying is so annoying especially as I can’t get Siri to play most of my stored music either.
 
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