CarPlay in iOS 27: What's New on a Motorcycle
iOS 27 lands this fall and brings a solid set of CarPlay changes with it. We installed the beta and tested everything on the CHIGEE AIO-6. Here's a quick look at what's new and what you actually get out of it on a motorcycle.
New wallpapers and a fresher look
Apple is adding a set of new wallpapers, matching what iPhones and Macs get this fall. Each comes in a light and a dark variant, and the refreshed Liquid Glass app icons look sharper and easier to read. A small thing, but the cockpit instantly feels fresh and you can finally match the background to your bike.
Audio scrubbing on the Now Playing screen
The Now Playing screen gets a bigger progress bar, so you can finally jump to any point in a song, podcast, or audiobook. CarPlay never allowed this before, which made it one of the most requested changes.
On the AIO-6 you can do it without touching the screen at all. Scrubbing works with the CGRC Multi controller on your handlebar, and on a BMW also with the Wonder Wheel. You skip the boring podcast intro with gloves on, without taking your hand off the bar.
A mini player inside audio apps
Music apps get a small player in the top right corner, with artwork and basic controls. You change tracks without jumping between screens, which on the road means less distraction and your eyes back where they belong.
A side note from our testing: the mini player only shows up with Smart Display Zoom enabled. On the AIO-6 and AIO-5 EVO the zoom is on by default, so the player is there out of the box. Prefer bigger tiles that are easier to read at a glance? You can turn the zoom off on the CarPlay screen under Settings, then Display, but then the system decides there's no room for the mini player.
A more stable wireless connection and more accurate GPS
At the WWDC26 keynote Apple announced improved wireless CarPlay reliability, along with better GPS accuracy and navigation heading detection. On a motorcycle this is the biggest item on the list. Your phone rides in a pocket or a top case anyway, so a more stable connection means fewer audio and navigation dropouts. And better heading detection means the arrow knows which way you're pointed right from the start, instead of spinning for the first hundred meters.
Siri AI: not in Poland at launch
The star of iOS 27 is the new Siri powered by Apple Intelligence. It understands the context of a conversation, answers regular questions, and gets more done by voice, in CarPlay too. It needs an iPhone with Apple Intelligence, meaning a 15 Pro or newer. On iPhones in the European Union, however, Siri AI won't work at launch. Apple says the European Commission rejected all of its proposals for a rollout compliant with the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The Commission replies that the DMA doesn't stop anyone from shipping new features and that this is Apple's decision alone, since instead of building a compliant solution the company asked for an 18 month exemption from the rules. Interestingly, on Macs and Vision Pro in the EU the new Siri will work, because those devices aren't covered by the DMA. There's no timeline for iPhones in Europe.
There's also a second barrier that gets less attention: language. Siri AI launches in English only, and Polish is still missing from the Apple Intelligence language list. Even if the EU block disappeared tomorrow, you still couldn't talk to the new Siri in Polish for now. So in CarPlay, the classic Siri stays.
How to try it all today
The iOS 27 public beta is already out. Sign up for free at beta.apple.com, then on your iPhone go to Settings, General, Software Update, and pick the iOS 27 Public Beta in the beta updates section. It runs on iPhone 11 or newer, plus iPhone SE from the second generation up.
Before you install: make a full backup, ideally an archived one on a computer. Betas can be unstable, and going back to stable iOS means erasing your iPhone and restoring it from a backup. A backup made on the beta won't restore to an older system, so back up first.
All of this arrives with the phone update, so you'll see it on the AIO-6 the moment iOS 27 ships. Riding with the AIO-5 EVO? You get the full set too.
This article is based on the beta, so details may still change before release.
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