When Apple designed CarPlay for iOS, it decided to stick with a familiar paradigm: a home button that takes you to a simple home scree...
:format(webp)/cdn3.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/53210075/carplay_marked.0.jpg)
When Apple designed CarPlay for iOS, it decided to stick with a familiar paradigm: a home button that takes you to a simple home screen of icons. That’s not a terrible idea — the interface is simple and familiar to everybody, and you don’t want to be struggling with a touchscreen when you’re supposed to be keeping your eyes on the road.
However, think about the two main things you have on a car dashboard: you glance at a map and you control your music. Currently, in order to switch between those tasks you have to tap twice: once for home, and then again for the other app. That’s not a huge problem, but it does mean extra time looking away from the road. It also could be a hassle if you don’t recall where your music app icon is (or if you don’t have “Now Playing” on your main home screen).
CARPLAY FEELS MORE LIKE IT’S MADE FOR A CAR NOW
Well, with the public beta that Apple is letting users test right now, that problem is fixed. Now, instead of a single icon in the upper left-hand corner, there are three. They list your recent apps and are a much faster, easier way to switch between them. This has been around on the beta since January 24th, but it’s so helpful that I wanted to call it out on its own rather than let it be missed while everybody else pays attention to the Find My Airpods feature.
It’s not a huge change, but it is a welcome one. And it’s also a sign that Apple is thinking a little more clearly about making interfaces native to their situations. The iOS home button paradigm is simple, but slapping it on a car dashboard always felt a little lazy to me. When you’re driving, you want quick “One button, one function” interfaces, and this new update to CarPlay gets us just a little closer to that.
COMMENTS