CarPlay in iOS 18.1 Gets Three Small Apple Intelligence Improvements

iOS 18.1 launched this week with the first Apple Intelligence features for iPhone, as well as iPad and Mac. But if you're a CarPlay user, you might have noticed that Apple Intelligence also brings some nice changes to the road. Here are three small improvements in iOS 18.1 for CarPlay.

Siri's New Glowing Design

Siri has a whole new look in iOS 18.1. Apple's digital assistant is no longer a floating orb at the bottom of your iPhone's screen. Instead, it's a glowing, luminous presence that surrounds the entire display.

The same Siri design extends to the assistant when using CarPlay.

Go on a trip with Apple Intelligence enabled on your iPhone, and you'll find the new Siri glow surrounding your CarPlay display when you invoke it.

It's a small touch, but it's good for consistency across devices.

A New Voice for Siri

In iOS 18.1, Siri doesn't just have a new look. She also sounds noticeably different.

That's because Apple Intelligence is making several changes to the way Siri speaks.

Apple's iOS 18.1 release notes explain it this way:

Voice improvements make Siri sound more natural, expressive, and clear.

Immediately, I noticed that Siri sounded different. Her updated speech also meant that some street names were pronounced differently than before.

More flexible notification management

Apple Intelligence is bringing a new feature to notifications that could improve your Driving Focus or any other Focus you use in the car.

Reduce Interruptions is a new Focus for iOS 18.1 that uses AI language understanding to only send you notifications that seem truly urgent. Everything else will be muted.

Best comment from Doug

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Tried out the new feature this morning. I was sent a long text message, and Siri dictated a summary of the text, then asked if I wanted to hear the whole thing. Cool!

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The great thing is that you can apply the same AI intelligence to any other Focus mode, including Driving.

By going to Settings ⇾ Focus, you'll find a new toggle when editing a Focus mode: Intelligent Breakthrough & Silencing.

This toggle lets Apple Intelligence manage what's important, just as if you were using the dedicated Focus Reduce Interruptions mode. This makes it a great addition for the context of CarPlay use.

What do you think of the changes to CarPlay in iOS 18.1? Let us know in the comments.