CarPlay Just Got BIGGER on Ford's 15" Screens

[IdeaOfTheDayCom]

I've always loved CarPlay and until last week, it pretty much looked the same on my Mustang Mach-E as it did on my old F-150... except it was a rectangle inside the big screen.

Then last week, it got BIGGER. It's more square than it was before, and that extra space makes maps, and just about everything look amazing.

The first thing you'll notice is the menu bar is no longer on the left side, it's on the bottom, just like iPhones, Macs and iPads.

Here's what it looks like.

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[LightningShow]

How come it doesn’t take up the whole screen?

 

[IdeaOfTheDayCom]

How come it doesn’t take up the whole screen?

On the 15" screen, CarPlay only used about 1/3rd of the screen. The climate controls, recent apps, top navigation, etc. are always there.

What they did in the last Ford update was shrink the size of the recent Apps, giving a lot more space to the CarPlay area.

Curiously, when I did the screen capture, I noticed the black bars above and below. Those are NOT taking up space on the 15" screen, but it probably means Apple's specs support an even bigger portrait mode. I guess every time Ford frees up space, Apple can take advantage of it.

It's hard to see from the photos, but every CarPlay App looks better with the extra space, and moving the Nav to the bottom also makes whatever's on top wider and cleaner.

 

[evowner]

I've always loved CarPlay and until last week, it pretty much looked the same on my Mustang Mach-E as it did on my old F-150... except it was a rectangle inside the big screen.

Then last week, it got BIGGER. It's more square than it was before, and that extra space makes maps, and just about everything look amazing.

The first thing you'll notice is the menu bar is no longer on the left side, it's on the bottom, just like iPhones, Macs and iPads.

Here's what it looks like.

What map app is that??

 

[theawesomegamer]

What map app is that??

Apple Maps.

 

[BluesClues]

in iOS 26 this issue can be fixed under the settings > display > smart zoom (on)

i think you're probably on the latest 18.6; but thought I'd mention as more folks will have ios26 in ~2 months

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