Car Play can become even better when you take a few minutes to customize it. Your i Phone turns your car's infotainment system into a navigation and communication hub, thanks to Car Play. While it works great by default, there are several ways to make it even better, plus new features that arrive every so often.

From configuring Car Play basics to designing the perfect app layout, adjusting the feature can make your commute safer and more entertaining. And with i OS 27 bringing several new updates to Car Play, now is a great time to dive into this core i Phone function. Make the most of the layout and display The easiest way to up your Car Play game is customizing its layout to your liking.

You may be surprised to learn that you must rearrange icons on your i Phone, not your car's display. To do this, open Settings on your i Phone, tap General and select Car Play. From there, select your vehicle and enter the Apps menu.

Here, you'll find a list of apps on your phone compatible with Car Play; drag them up or down to make the most important ones readily available on your Car Play screen. The size of your car's display defines how many apps make it onto the first page, so you may have to get creative when prioritizing your most-used ones. To remove or add apps, tap the red minus or green plus, respectively.

Starting with i OS 26, you can further organize your infotainment system through Car Play widgets. These bring the same quick views you use on your phone's Home screen, such as weather, calendar and clock, to your Car's display. Edit them by tapping Widgets on the same menu where you selected your Apps earlier.

Car Play will intelligently swap your widgets throughout the day if enable Smart Rotate, and the similar Widget Suggestions will show available ones even if you haven't added them. Car Play's overall brightness should shift with your dash controls, but you can go further to toggle light and dark mode to suit the conditions to the time of day. Go to Settings > Appearance on your Car Play screen, then select Automatic to allow your Car Play brightness to adjust automatically.

Apple's Car Play visual accessibility guide can also help here. To spruce up its look, customize your wallpaper by opening Settings inside Car Play and tapping Wallpaper. Choose your favorite option and hit Set.

You can also change the colors of your icons, toggling between Default, Dark and Clear, under Settings > Customize icons in Car Play. Maximizing what you get from Car Play Siri is built into Car Play; by saying "Hey Siri" or pressing the voice button on your car's steering wheel, you can send messages, start navigation, change the playlist and take other actions. On a compatible i Phone, the revamped Siri AI in i OS 27 is also more useful in the car.

And if the assistant is becoming a backseat driver, you can stop Siri from interrupting you while using Car Play by tinkering with various settings. If you like, you can go further by enabling Voice Commands, an accessibility feature that provides more Car Play controls with your voice. To turn this on, go to Settings > Accessibility > Voice Control in Car Play.

Once enabled, it will continually listen for commands like opening apps, swiping left/right or touching a certain element on the screen. For a full list of commands, see Apple's Voice Control Car Play support page. The Focus feature is a productivity must-have on your i Phone, and the Driving Focus helps reduce distractions from notifications while not affecting essential driving apps.

To enable Driving Focus, go to the Settings on your vehicle's Car Play display, select Driving Focus and choose Activate with Car Play. For best results, customize your Driving Focus notification settings on your phone by going to Settings > Focus > Driving. Under People, select contacts whose messages you'd like to allow th...