iOS 26.4 not only brings improvements to your iPhone, CarPlay also gets an important function. This has now been confirmed by Apple.
CarPlay in iOS 26.4
CarPlay will soon be expanded with an important new feature! Apple is working on iOS 26.4, the next software version for the iPhone. iOS 26.4 brings many new features to the iPhone, but that’s not all. CarPlay will also be expanded with a feature in the next software update. With iOS 26.4, CarPlay gains support for a range of voice-controlled applications that work with artificial intelligence.
With this improvement, popular applications such as ChatGPT, Google Gemini and Claude can finally come to CarPlay. That is striking, because Apple does not quickly allow new categories of applications with CarPlay. The company determines which apps you can add to CarPlay, to protect the safety of road users. With iOS 26.4, users get more options, now that Apple has confirmed that voice-controlled AI apps are coming to CarPlay.
Only voice-operated chatbots
It was already clear that voice-controlled chatbots would come to CarPlay with iOS 26.4. Apple has now also included the new category of apps in its developer guide. Good news if you regularly enter questions or commands in ChatGPT, for example, because this will soon also be possible in CarPlay. Apple imposes a clear condition on this: the chatbots may only work with voice commands.
The voice-controlled applications that work with artificial intelligence should not be too distracting for the driver of the car. For example, Apple does not allow images or extensive text on the screen. Instead, chatbot developers will be given the opportunity to add five buttons to the CarPlay screen in iOS 26.4. They decide for themselves which functions are linked to those buttons, which are features such as repeating an answer and recording a command. This is what it looks like:
More about CarPlay
With iOS 26.4, CarPlay gains support for popular applications such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini. This does not mean that these apps are immediately available, because OpenAI and Google must first develop a special software version for CarPlay. It is not yet known whether the companies intend to do so, although it seems likely. You are then no longer dependent on Siri, but can also consult other voice assistants.
These do not replace Siri, which remains the standard voice assistant in CarPlay in iOS 26.4. Third-party chatbots also cannot access CarPlay or car functions, they can only answer questions via voice control. This is not the only big change coming to CarPlay soon, because you will soon also be able to play videos on the screen in the car. You can read more about that here.
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