CarPlay dashboard widgets: what actually works in iOS 26 and 27

Updated 18 September 2026 · iOS 26 and 27

iOS 26 and later let any app's small widget sit on the CarPlay dashboard. The catch: the car draws them differently from your phone, one dashboard fits about one widget, and only some are worth the space. Here is what we learned building for it.

What shows up on the dashboard

CarPlay takes the small widget size only (the square one from your Home Screen). Medium, large and Lock Screen sizes never appear. Live Activities do show, on the dashboard and on the CarPlay lock view, if the app opts its activity into the small family.

On a typical 8-inch head unit the dashboard shows the map plus one widget at a time; on wide screens you get two. So a widget competes for one slot. The ones that earn it are glanceable: a clock, a countdown, a number. Anything you would have to read for more than a second does not belong there.

Why widgets look different in the car

CarPlay never draws a widget's container background. On the phone that background is the rounded card; in the car it is simply gone, so a widget that relied on it renders as bare text floating on your car's wallpaper. Apps that look designed on the dashboard paint their own surface as content. If your favourite widget looks like loose glyphs in the car, that is why, and it is the app's fix to make, not yours. More on this in why widgets look bare on CarPlay.

The same "no container background" mode is what StandBy uses on a nightstand. Apps cannot tell the two apart, so a widget tuned for a sunlit windshield is the same one that glows at 3 am. Good apps pick colours that survive both.

What you can touch

Tapping a widget to open its app does nothing on the car screen; iOS dims the tap. But buttons inside a widget work. A widget can carry a "save my parking spot" button or a toggle and run it right there, without opening anything. That is the difference between a widget you look at and one you use, and it was tested on a real head unit, not a simulator.

What the simulator won't tell you

Xcode's simulator shows a CarPlay screen, but only the app grid; there is no widget dashboard and no CarPlay settings pane to add widgets from. Anything about how a widget looks in the car has to be checked in a car. Otto ships with its own dashboard mock for that reason, and still treats the real head unit as the test.

Picking widgets for the dashboard

Clock: the obvious one; the car's own clock is tiny. Choose a face with high contrast, and see the clock guide.
Countdowns: inspection, insurance, service. Dates you forget until they cost money.
Your plate: looks decorative, but it is the thing you type into parking machines and rental forms.
Parking: a Live Activity that appears when you leave the car and shows the way back.
Skip: weather (the map already shows it), calendars (unreadable at speed), anything that wants a tap to open.

To put widgets on the dashboard, follow how to add widgets to the CarPlay dashboard.

Otto is a free app that puts a clock, your license plate, inspection and insurance countdowns, parking and the Drive Card on the CarPlay dashboard, Home Screen and Lock Screen. Everything in this guide is how Otto itself works on a real car screen. Get Otto on the App Store.