Apple CarPlay Will Gain a New Feature in the iOS 17 Update

While everyone was intrigued, surprised, or horrified by the reveal of the $3,499 Apple Vision Pro headset at the company’s 2023 WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference), there was also a small tidbit of news to Apple CarPlay that managed to be slipped in too.

As part of the upcoming iOS 17 software update, Apple CarPlay will enable a new feature to expand on one’s driving experience. While the full-screen dashboard takeover that Apple teased last year is yet to be seen, the SharePlay function will be making its way to CarPlay.

What Is SharePlay?

For those that don’t know, SharePlay allows iPhone users to watch movies and television shows on AppleTV, listen to songs through Apple Music, and play multiplayer games from Game Center with friends and family during a Facetime call.

How Will SharePlay Work with Apple CarPlay?

This means that if you are driving with passengers that own iPhones, and you have Apple Music enabled, other people can jump in on your session and add their own song selections to your queue. In other words, you and everyone else in the car can build a playlist on the fly instead of assigning one person to be the DJ. Or even worse, pass the phone around and let them comb through your music selection. This way, whenever you’re out on a road trip with friends, everyone will be happy with the music selection because everyone gets a say.

Users can also expect to be able to play, pause, skip, rewind, and reorder songs. It is unknown if other streaming apps like Spotify, Pandora, Tidal, and Soundcloud will be compatible with this feature, or if it will be exclusive only to Apple Music.

Android users can safely assume that Android Auto will come out with a similar feature of its own in the future.

Apple’s iOS 17 is expected to roll out by September 2023.