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See the full story · 1 sourcesGo to the 9to5Mac home page Switch site 9to5Toys 9to5Google Logo 9to5Google Electrek Drone DJ Logo DroneDJ Space Explored About Privacy Toggle social menu Toggle dark mode Search for: Submit Toggle search form Forums Store Podcasts Apple@Work Happy Hour 9to5Mac Daily Overtime iPhone iPhone Mac Mac MacBook Pro MacBook Air iMac Mac mini Mac Studio Mac Pro iPad iPad Pro iPad Air iPad mini iPad iPadOS Watch Apple Watch Apple Watch Ultra Apple Health Apple Watch SE Vision Vision Pro visionOS Music and TV Apple Music AirPods HomePod Apple TV Guides Reviews How Tos AAPL Apple Store Apple Arcade Apple Card Apple Silicon Apple One Apple Fitness+ CarPlay Siri HomeKit Toggle dark mode CarPlay iOS 27 CarPlay in iOS 27 adds two new features for popular Apple apps Ryan Christoffel | Aug 6 2026 - 8:25 am PT 0 Comments CarPlay in iOS 27 has a handful of new features and improvements , including two additions for some of Apple’s most popular apps, like Apple Music and Apple Podcasts.
Outside of navigation apps like Apple Maps, the most-used category of CarPlay apps is audio.
Audio apps like Apple Music, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, and more are essentials when you’re on the go.
And in iOS 27, Apple has two improvements coming for your favorite audio apps:
When using a CarPlay audio app, previously the top-right corner had a waveform icon you could tap to open the Now Playing screen. But in iOS 27, that waveform has been replaced by a new MiniPlayer.
The MiniPlayer features artwork for whatever’s currently playing and offers play/pause and skip controls. Thanks to this change, you can access basic playback controls while browsing other parts of the app outside of Now Playing.
Audio scrubbing is new to CarPlay in iOS 27 too.
iPhone users are well accustomed to scrubbing through audio or video by tapping and dragging the playhead. But that’s never been supported in CarPlay before now.
In iOS 27 though, the playhead has increased in size and now supports scrubbing to quickly navigate through a podcast, audiobook, or song.
These changes apply to Apple’s own CarPlay apps, but they should also extend to most third-party audio apps once they’re updated for iOS 27 too.
What additional audio app changes do you hope to see in CarPlay? Let us know in the comments.
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Ryan got his start in journalism as an Editor at MacStories, where he worked for four years covering Apple news, writing app reviews, and more. For two years he co-hosted the Adapt podcast on Relay FM, which focused entirely on the iPad. As a result, it should come as no surprise that his favorite Apple device is the iPad Pro.
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