Apple is expected to release iOS 26 next month, and as part of that release, CarPlay is getting an intriguing new feature: video playback. This marks a pretty important milestone for Apple, which has so far resisted offering such a functionality on CarPlay.
With iOS 26, apps will be able to play videos onto the CarPlay screen – of course, only when the car is parked. That sounds awesome, but there’s a pretty significant catch.
Namely, automakers will have to enable support for this feature, it won’t just magically go live. And so, many of them could decide to simply not bother, or might have very late rollouts.
On the other hand, CarPlay in iOS 26 is definitely getting redesigned icons and appearance options, support for widgets, and some updates to Music and Messages – these don’t require any explicit approval from car makers so you’ll see them in September.
A step above CarPlay is CarPlay Ultra, announced back in May with Aston Martin, and expected to also eventually be supported on vehicles from Kia, Hyundai, Porsche, Genesis, Ford, Nissan, Infiniti, Jaguar, and Honda, but shunned by BMW, Mercedes, Volvo, Polestar, Renault, and GM.