How to improve CarPlay navigation if you use Google Maps over Apple Maps

Engadget staff@engadget.com (Filipe Espósito)

28 Sept 2026 09:00 AEST 1 min read Rewritten in plain language

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Overview

A few tricks provide a Google Maps experience in your car with CarPlay.
The good news is that you can use Google Maps in Apple CarPlay just like any other supported app.
If you're in one of these regions, you'll find this toggle in the Default Apps menu on your iPhone, located under Settings > Apps.
If you're outside the EU and Japan, there are still ways to use Google Maps in CarPlay.
If Google Maps isn't showing up on CarPlay at all, this is the first place to look.

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A few tricks provide a Google Maps experience in your car with CarPlay.

Apple Maps has improved a lot since its troubled launch, but many people still prefer Google Maps. The good news is that you can use Google Maps in Apple CarPlay just like any other supported app.

Apple has always been restrictive when it comes to changing the iPhone's default apps. In the EU and Japan, local regulations allow you to choose your favorite navigation app as the default. If you're in one of these regions, you'll find this toggle in the Default Apps menu on your iPhone, located under Settings > Apps.

While it's not particularly smooth, one of the easiest is adding "on Google Maps" to the end of Siri requests in the car to avoid Apple Maps opening by default.

If you're outside the EU and Japan, there are still ways to use Google Maps in CarPlay. One is to place Google Maps on the first page of your CarPlay Home Screen: in your iPhone's Settings, go to General > CarPlay.

If Google Maps isn't showing up on CarPlay at all, this is the first place to look. Of course, you'll need to download Google Maps to your iPhone from the App Store first.

Adding Google Maps to your CarPlay dashboard is another method to reach it faster. Go back to CarPlay's settings on your iPhone, but this time, tap Widgets instead of Apps.

Again in Google Maps on your iPhone, tap your profile picture and select Offline Maps.

Shortened to 1 minute of reading, this version reads 10.7 on the Niral Score.

You are reading our version, not theirs. This is Engadget's report shortened to its most important sentences, in plainer words, with verdicts and loaded words taken out. Plain description stays, and so do adjectives that carry a fact, such as "former" or "federal". The reporting, the facts and the quotations are theirs — quotations are never edited — and the indicators beside it measure this version. Hover or tap Adjectives to see every one left in the text.

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Niral Score 15.2was 16.4 mundaneloaded

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iphone8app7use7default6navigation6tap6car5add4select4adding3change3choose3connection3experience3find3good3instead3menu3addresses2avoid2best2dashboard2data2download2downloaded2few2improve2lot2needed2panel2picture2place2profile2scroll2since2start2tricks2widget2work2you'll2you're2

Sentiment +0.0 hostilefavourable Mood 45.8 sorrowjoyful

6 read zero: political diction, generational, gender, jingoistic, religious, sourcing

Political diction 0 left-codedright-coded Generational 0 harder on the oldharder on the young Gender 0 no gendered framingframing throughout Jingoistic 0 reports to a readerwrites from a camp Religious 0 not invokedovert Sourcing 0 unattributednamed sources

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Outlet	Niral Score	Adjectives	Happiness
Engadgetas they published this story	16.4	22	45.8
Mundane Readneutralized from Engadget	15.2	20	45.8

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