CarPlay Features
Apple already hinted on stage that some of iOS 15’s CarPlay enhancements are going to take a bit longer when it shared its new detailed city experiences in Apple Maps. While these incredible new landscapes should be available when iOS 15 ships — at least in a few key cities — Meg Frost, Apple’s Director of Product Design for Apple Maps, said they wouldn’t be coming to CarPlay until later this year.
This is confirmed on Apple’s iOS 15 Preview Page, which says it will be part of a later iOS update, but it seems we’ll also be waiting a bit before another cool new CarPlay feature makes its debut.
Sometime in iOS 15, CarPlay users will be gaining Announce Messages in CarPlay, a feature that sounds very similar to Announce Messages with Siri which launched two years ago — but notably not until iOS 13.2.
What this means is that Siri will be able to announce incoming messages automatically while you’re driving, saving you from having to notice the banner and tap on the screen when a new message comes in. You’ll be able to turn this on or off in settings, of course, but Apple says you’ll also be able to toggle it off when a message is being read, and Siri will remember your preference — which is obviously very handy for privacy reasons when you’re travelling with someone else in the car.