Don’t throw away your unused iPhone. Use Carplay to build a smart car

Apple Carplay was launched a long time ago, but it has always given people a sense of "useless". First of all, there were relatively few models supported in the early days, and secondly, there was a lack of third-party applications and limited functions. With the arrival of IOS 12 and more and more cars starting to be equipped with it, Carplay has gradually become really useful. If you have an idle iPhone in your hand, instead of throwing it to relatives and friends, you might as well use it and Carplay to build a smart car~

The reason why I choose this time to share some experience with you about using Carplay is first of all due to the launch of Apple's iOS 12 system. Since iOS 12, mainstream Chinese apps such as Amap, Baidu Maps, QQ Music, NetEase Cloud Music, Himalaya, and Qingting FM that everyone is familiar with can all get direct support from Carplay.

Before this, Carplay could only support a few Chinese apps such as QQ Music, which was really useless. Although the restrictions can be overcome by jailbreaking, there is a risk of losing the warranty, and the system version that supports jailbreaking is relatively low, so many people have lost the opportunity to jailbreak. iOS 12 has truly opened up the Ren and Du meridians of Carplay.

When iOS 12 was first released, I was excited to update it as soon as possible and connect it to Carplay. Unfortunately, although many third-party apps support Carplay, they are not well optimized. Take Amap as an example. There is no setting for mute broadcast. The humanized setting is seriously lacking, which disappointed me again.

After a period of precipitation and optimization, many third-party apps have completed the optimization work on the Carplay interface. Many known bugs and humanized deficiencies have been fixed, so I dare to share them with you now.

Next, please follow the editor to systematically understand and play Carplay~

Preparation: iPhone 5S can play CarPlay

If you want to know which third-party apps currently support Carplay, just search the keyword "Carplay" in the Apple APP Store. Of course, in addition to these apps, you also need an iPhone, *** iPhone 5S, and upgrade to iOS 12 (Apple's official requirement~).

By the way, you also need a car that supports Carplay. Many cars released in recent years already have Carplay function. If your car does not support Carplay, don't worry, many car computers also come with Carplay, or you can upgrade the Carplay module to achieve it. Because it involves a wide range of aspects, please further research according to your own car model.

It is said that there is a magical product called "Carplay Box" on the market, which looks like a card reader. You only need to connect it to the mobile phone and the car computer through a data cable to upgrade the Carplay function of the car computer. The author actually searched on Taobao and found that the price is basically around 200 to 300 yuan, which I believe most car owners can afford.

What? You said you want to play Carplay with an Android phone? Then I suggest you turn right and study "CarLife" or ask relatives and friends for an unused iPhone. Of course, because Apple's iOS 12 supports old devices better, a second-hand iPhone 5S costs only a few hundred yuan, and it is said to be very smooth.

Well, you also need an Apple data cable~ Because the author uses an idle iPhone 6S Plus, which is large in size, there will be a long "tail" after plugging in the data cable, so it cannot be put into the central control storage box. For this reason, I specially bought a data cable with an elbow. This little tip can be given to friends who want to store their mobile phones.

The initial preparation is very simple: connect the iPhone to the USB port of the car that supports Carplay with a data cable, and turn on the Siri function of the phone. Taking my car as an example, it has many USB ports, but only the USB port with the mobile phone logo can be connected to Carplay. Please refer to the manual of your car for details. It is reported that there is already a wireless Carplay connection method, but currently only BMW and Alpine ilx107 car machines can support it.

In fact, for driving, there are always three basic needs: interaction, music, and navigation. Next, let's start with interaction and see what Carplay can do for us?

Interaction: Let silly Siri be your smart co-pilot

The theme of this article is "Building Smart Cars". In addition to music, navigation and other services provided by third parties, Apple's voice assistant Siri plays a key role. Siri will become the main medium for interaction between you and your car. She can make your car serve you like the smart speakers that everyone knows.

We can basically regard this silly Siri as your "smart co-pilot". For example, you can ask her what time it is, what day it is today, what schedule you have, etc. In addition, Siri can help you make and receive calls, send and receive text messages, and even send and receive WeChat and set navigation with voice control, which is even more important for driving safety and convenience!

There are two ways to wake up Siri on the phone: through the Home button or by saying "Hai, Siri". But in terms of Carplay in the car, if your car supports Carplay natively, there may be a call button on your multi-function steering wheel, and we can also wake up Siri by long pressing this button.

Well, now we can play with Siri to our heart's content. With Siri, you can make or answer calls, send and receive text messages without taking your eyes off the front. Of course, the most exciting thing is that Carplay now also supports the function of sending and receiving WeChat messages. You can see my actual demonstration in the video above.

How about it? With Siri, the "smart co-pilot", it will be much more convenient for you to drive. You can completely achieve voice control without distracting your vision, and the safety is also greatly improved.

Entertainment: Create your smart lossless music journey

Next, we come to the second driving necessity, music. With the support of Siri, you can not only control the music playback by voice, but also download lossless music through the mobile phone to further enhance the listening experience. Because many original car machines only support MP3 format audio, the mobile phone just solves this pain point.

There are many ways to listen to music now. CDs have been basically eliminated. USB interface plugging in U disk may be the mainstream now, but every time you update songs, you need to unplug and plug in the U disk, and many car computers only support MP3 format. It is much more convenient to use mobile phones as the sound source, because we often carry mobile phones and it is very convenient to download songs.

In addition to Apple’s own music service, Carplay currently also supports QQ Music, NetEase Cloud Music, Kugou Music, Kuwo Music, Xiami Music... basically all the commonly used music apps are supported, and even some niche music apps, such as some HiFi music applications. You can choose according to your preferences.

Of course, if we consider Siri voice control, the most popular one is Apple's own music service (Apple Music). After all, the original support is indisputable. We can get a more convenient music experience through Siri. For example: play a song by JJ Lin, a cheerful song, play the hottest songs, etc.

Apple's own music service can be tried for three months for free, and after the trial period, it costs 10 yuan per month, and 5 yuan for college students. However, Apple's own music service is really a love-hate relationship. Although it supports a higher level of intelligence, no additional consumption (10 yuan all-inclusive), supports volume balance function, rich foreign language resources, and is cheaper than QQ Music's 15 yuan green diamond fee, it does not have a lossless format, and the Chinese music library is relatively weak, which may not be suitable for most Chinese users.

In the end, I chose QQ Music, which I already paid for. With the support of Green Diamond, I can easily download lossless audio sources, and QQ Music has more advantages than Apple Music in terms of localized resources. Through actual listening comparison, QQ Music's lossless is indeed purer than Apple Music, and it also provides many car audio optimization solutions, as well as DTS sound effects for members, which are excellent.

It is actually not impossible to let Siri control QQ Music more accurately. We will discuss this in the advanced section of "Shortcuts" later.

Navigation: Just tell Siri where you want to go

In fact, the most critical reason why Carplay was not widely used in the past few years is that it only supports Apple's own map service by default. Later, Apple also adopted AutoNavi's data in China, but it was still much weaker than the AutoNavi map on mobile phones. Now, Carplay can finally support AutoNavi and Baidu maps!

Compared with Apple Maps, Amap and Baidu Maps, Apple's built-in map service can better support intelligent voice control, and Carplay will use its own map service for navigation by default.

In fact, through continuous optimization, Apple Maps and Amap are almost the same now. The only regret is that Apple Maps still does not support offline data, which will cause you to pay more for data traffic. In fact, both Apple's own maps and Amap have the characteristics of simple interface and relatively large font, which is very suitable for driving and clear at a glance.

You can set your frequently used addresses, such as home and work addresses, in your Apple account. Then, after waking up Siri, just tell her: "I want to go home" or just say: "Navigate to XX address". Compared with the traditional car navigation system that requires manual input, Siri is much more convenient and safer.

If you want to use Amap or Baidu Map for navigation, then Siri can only open these apps by default, and the rest needs to be done manually. After all, third-party software is a stepmother's product, so it naturally cannot enjoy the same treatment as the Apple Maps, which is a direct descendant of Apple. (The video was shot in the basement, with poor signal and slow loading of traffic conditions.)

Of course, there are exceptions. "Shortcuts" can also promote the integration of Carplay and third-party software. Next, we will move on to the advanced stage and talk about the use of "shortcuts".

Advanced: She can help you more through "shortcuts"

"Shortcuts" is a new service launched with iOS 12, which can help third-party software better adapt to Siri. Some commonly used "Shortcuts" settings have been built into the iOS 12 system. Users with higher requirements can download the independent "Shortcuts" APP through the APP Store to make more personalized and complex settings.

How should you understand "shortcuts"? You can understand "shortcuts" as a line that can effectively connect Siri and third-party applications, as well as the lower-level functions of third-party applications.

For example, by default, when we wake up Siri, it can only open QQ Music for us, but we can't ask QQ Music to play your specific song list. "Shortcuts" are designed to solve this problem. It connects your Siri, QQ Music, and music list in series, and you can perform complex operations with just one voice command.

Let's take QQ Music as an example. If you have installed and used QQ Music on your phone, you can find the shortcut setting entry in "Settings---Siri and Search". Generally speaking, many third-party applications will provide some commonly used shortcuts for you to choose from for ease of use.

Click the "+" sign behind these "shortcuts" and set a voice command, and you can use this voice command to perform a series of complex operations. For example, for the action "QQ Music + Recently Played", you can set a voice command: "Recently Listened Songs". In the future, every time you wake up Siri, just say to her: "Recently Listened Songs", she will open QQ Music and play the "Recently Played" music list.

You can also get "shortcuts" through third-party apps. Take QQ Music as an example. Enter the "Settings" interface of QQ Music, then find the "Add Siri Shortcut" option. Click it and you will see more shortcuts that can be added to Siri. Basically, it covers the scope of daily needs, which makes it much more convenient to listen to music while driving.

As third-party software continues to improve its support for Siri, Carplay will become more and more convenient. If these commonly used "shortcuts" cannot satisfy you, you can also download the "Shortcuts" APP to set it up. It is said that some experts can achieve magical operations such as letting Siri help you order food. There are also many experts on the Internet who share a large number of "shortcuts", which are very playable.

"Shortcuts" can be said to open a window of personalized customization. The editor here is just throwing out some ideas, and you can explore more according to your own needs.

***: Let iPhone and car be together forever

Since it is an idle iPhone, there is no need to carry it with you most of the time. Wouldn't it be more convenient if it could automatically connect to Carplay every time you start the car? However, if you want to achieve this step perfectly, there is a small episode. We also need to further set up the phone to achieve such a perfect effect.

During use, I found that although the phone and the car are always connected, when the car is turned off for more than an hour and then restarted, the phone will pop up a prompt to "unlock iPhone to use accessories". I need to manually unlock the iPhone every time to connect to Carplay. This is very embarrassing because my iPhone is hidden in the storage box of the car, which is quite troublesome.

After a detailed understanding, I found out that this is a "USB restricted mode" security setting added since the iOS 11 era to prevent some brute force password cracking methods from unlocking the iPhone. Anyway, this iPhone is also placed in the car, there is no important information and it is not often used, so we simply turn off this mechanism.

If you want to turn off this feature, it is actually very simple. Find the "Touch ID & Passcode" option in the settings, then enter the menu and find the "USB accessories" at the bottom. It is turned off by default, just turn it on. It is explained clearly here: "Turn it off to prevent USB accessories from connecting to the iPhone after it has been locked for more than 1 hour", so we turn it on~

What? What if the battery is out? The phone is always connected to the car. When the car is started, the phone will be charged. Most of the time, the screen is locked, so it doesn't consume much power at all. Unless you don't drive for a month. Because I hide my phone in a storage box with a USB port and a cover, it won't be exposed to thieves who break the glass.

At this point, this idle iPhone is finally forever connected to my car~

Conclusion: Carplay is not perfect but it is usable

Through my "close contact" with Siri in recent days, she made me feel the great progress since iOS 12. However, as a foreign company, Apple will naturally always have shortcomings in localized services. Although Apple has been working hard to improve, the shortcomings still exist and it is still difficult to say that it has been perfected.

However, after some experience, we can now basically draw a conclusion. With the support of iOS12 system and a large number of third-party apps and "shortcuts", Carplay has now reached the level of "usable". It can effectively improve the safety and convenience of driving. It is basically qualified to be called your "smart co-pilot".

Carplay has many functions that can be explored in depth, and its potential for subsequent development is also huge. Today, I am just throwing out some ideas. *** I would like to bring you two important safety tips, and I hope you will pay special attention!