Siri in CarPlay on iOS 26

[london_apple]

Hey all — wondering if anyone else is running into this. Does Siri in CarPlay now require “on Apple Music” at the end of song requests in iOS 26?

Since updating, I’ve noticed a change in how Siri works in CarPlay when trying to play music. Previously, I could just say:

“Play [song name] by [artist]”

…and it would immediately start playing from Apple Music without any issue.


Now, Siri only understands the request if I add “on Apple Music” at the end, like:

“Play [song name] by [artist] on Apple Music.”

Otherwise, it fails to play anything and asks me to "please try again."

It’s not the end of the world, but it’s definitely clunkier — especially when driving. Has anyone else experienced this behavior since updating? Is it a bug, or did Apple change how Siri routes playback requests in iOS 26? I'm on 26.1 now, and this is still an issue. Ugh

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

Mine works fine. Do you have other Music apps installed like Spotify? If so maybe that’s why…

 

[FreakinEurekan]

Does Siri behave the same without CarPlay?

In other words - is it a Siri issue, or a CarPlay issue?

 

[london_apple]

Mine works fine. Do you have other Music apps installed like Spotify? If so maybe that’s why…

I have SoundCloud installed, otherwise just Apple Music. It works outside of CarPlay though, so that’s the weird thing. I’ll try deleting SoundCloud and see if it works — I don’t use it much anyways, but not ideal.

 

[london_apple]

Does Siri behave the same without CarPlay?

In other words - is it a Siri issue, or a CarPlay issue?

That’s a great question. Siri does just fine completing the request on my phone when I’m not on CarPlay without “on Apple Music” at the end of the phrase.

It’s just added mouthful. Leads me to think it’s a CarPlay issue? I’m going to delete the one other music app I have installed (SoundCloud) but it worked fine on 18. Weird.