Apple’s CarPlay is great for hands-free usage while driving, but the notifications from apps can be distracting, and in some cases, even be dangerous.
Fortunately though, Apple provides ways to customize which notifications make it through to your CarPlay display.
How to Turn Off All CarPlay Notifications
If you want to disable all notifications in CarPlay, it’s a simple process:
- Connect your iPhone to your vehicle’s CarPlay system.
- On your iPhone, open the Settings app and select “Notifications.”
- Scroll down and tap the “CarPlay” entry.
- Toggle off the switch next to “Allow Notifications.”
With notifications disabled in CarPlay, you’ll no longer be distracted by banners, sounds, or badges while using Apple’s in-car platform.
Unfortunately, this is an all-or-nothing solution – if there are certain apps you do want notification access for in CarPlay, you’ll have to take a more granular approach.
Customize Notifications for CarPlay
In some cases, there may be some apps that you wish to leave notifications enabled for. Apple provides the ability to allow CarPlay notifications on an app-by-app basis:
- Connect your iPhone to CarPlay.
- Open the Settings app and go to Notifications > CarPlay.
- You’ll see a list of your installed apps that provide notifications.
- Tap each app to toggle its CarPlay notifications on or off as desired.
For example, you may want to leave CarPlay notifications enabled for important apps like messaging, phone calls, calendar reminders, and navigation.
But you can disable them for less essential apps like Twitter and Facebook, games you’re currently playing, or general news updates that can wait until you’ve arrived at your destination.
For apps with CarPlay notifications enabled, you can often adjust the type of notifications that are allowed by tapping on the app’s name in Settings > Notifications.
Options may include disabling notification banners, sounds, badges, or setting an app as time-sensitive to allow it to bypass Do Not Disturb mode.
Overall though, adjusting your CarPlay settings before you set off on a long drive can make the experience much smoother, only alerting you to essential notifications that are of importance.
And, you don’t need to turn off CarPlay completely if the notifications are annoying you – just customize them to your own preference.
