Play a sound when CarPlay connects, and save your parking spot when it disconnects

Updated 18 September 2026 · iOS 26 and 27

Both features run off one Shortcuts automation that you build once by hand. There is no API for an app to create it for you; that is the honest limit, and the reason the setup exists.

Why it needs Shortcuts

Apps cannot register for "CarPlay connected" in the background. The only thing that can react to it is a personal automation in the Shortcuts app, and iOS does not let apps create automations on the user's behalf. So the app provides the actions ("play welcome sound", "save parking spot") and you wire the trigger.

Set it up

Open Shortcuts → Automation → +.
Choose CarPlay as the trigger. Tick Connects for the welcome sound, or Disconnects for parking (make two automations if you want both).
Set it to Run Immediately. If it is set to ask first, nothing happens while you are driving.
Add the app's action: Play Welcome Sound on connect, Save Parking Spot on disconnect.

Otto's Setup tab walks through exactly these steps with screenshots.

The two things that break it

"Ask before running". The most common cause of "the sound doesn't play". Open the automation and choose Run Immediately.
Location not set to Always. Parking is saved when CarPlay disconnects, which happens with the phone in your pocket and the app in the background. With "While Using", iOS refuses the location read and nothing is saved. Settings → Privacy → Location → the app → Always.

Why there is no goodbye sound

The moment CarPlay disconnects, audio routes back to the phone. A "goodbye" sound plays out of the phone in your pocket, not the car. It's not a bug anyone can fix, so the disconnect automation does something useful instead: it saves where you parked, silently, and raises a Live Activity on the Lock Screen with the way back.

Live Activity limits

iOS freezes a Live Activity after 8 hours and removes it after 12. For a long-term parking spot the app also schedules a notification so the spot outlives the activity. The parking button on the widget itself works from the car screen too, if you'd rather tap than automate.

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.