Apple CarPlay update coming with great new feature for football fans on both sides of the Atlantic

Unlike Android Auto which updates independently, Apple CarPlay is tied to the version of iOS that’s powering it. And so, with iOS 18.4 heading to an iPhone near you soon, an interesting new feature is also heading to Apple CarPlay.

Apple hasn’t made any announcement about this feature yet, probably because there’s no one to showcase it, but it was uncovered by 9to5mac which found details of a new API in Apple’s documentation. This details a sports mode for Apple CarPlay.

Before you get too excited, it’s not about sports cars, or track driving, it’s about sports events. The details of the API don’t show what it will look like, but do detail the components that make up the feature, which include a background image, the status (which is likely to be the score), plus a left team and right team.

This suggests that when there’s a big football game, for example, the details can take over Apple CarPlay, with an appropriate background image and logos for the teams on each side, along with the live score for the game. That will give great glanceable information, especially if you’re listening to that game on the radio when driving.

What’s interesting is that Apple outlines that the team on the left should be the “away” or “visiting” team, while the team on the right should be the “home” team. This is the convention in the US and Canada, but in Europe it’s the other way around, with the home team listed on the left.

Apple also states in the API details that this order should not be reversed if it’s a right-hand drive (like we have in the UK) or in a language which is read right-to-left. I suspect that these parameters will change when Apple realises that across the globe, most soccer fans will want the home team on the left.

As I said, we have no idea what this will look like, but its existence as an API in Apple CarPlay opens it up for developers to use it to integrate various sports apps into CarPlay a little better..