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Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Hey Apple, Add Some More CarPlay Compatible Third-Party Apps Already [Opinion]


The Apple CarPlay compatible apps list has grown very slowly in the last few months. When Apple first announced the feature back in March 2014, only five third-party apps were compatible: Podcasts, Beats Music, iHeartRadio, Spotify and Stitcher. Since then, only four more apps have been added to the list.

The other four compatible apps are MLB At Bat, CBS Radio, Rdio and Overcast.

With Android Auto on the verge of being released, will Apple step up its game and give the green light to other third-party apps?

Google has already announced a few other third-party apps that will be Android Auto compatible. Their list of apps promises to be longer than that of Apple CarPlay. The biggest surprise is the popular messaging service, WhatsApp, which will be Android Auto compatible at release.

Other apps that will become Android Auto compatible in Android 5.0 Lollipop are iHeartRadio, Joyride, Kik Messenger, MLB.com At Bat, Pandora, Pocket Casts, Songza, SoundCloud, Spotify, Stitcher, TextMe, TextPlus, TuneIn, Umano, and NPR One.

Interestingly, Pandora Internet Radio is not Apple CarPlay compatible at the moment while it is expected to get Android Auto compatibility.

Apple surely has a list of apps lined up for CarPlay release this year. Their process of approving compatible apps, like Google's, is believed to be quite tedious. And with Apple, its tough to predict anything until they actually announce it themselves.

Both platforms have strict regulations on which apps and features integrate into your car's dashboard. Google won't even allow access to your phonebook in Android Auto, for example. Instead, users will have to use voice commands to make calls or send messages. This is quite similar to how Apple CarPlay works with Siri at the center of it all.

Pioneer Electronics' AppRadio Mode was announced in 2011, and over the last three-and-a-half years, the list of compatible apps has grown to only around 35. But Apple CarPlay (and Android Auto) is bound to become more popular that AppRadio Mode, which hopefully means more third-party applications will be available for use in the car, in a safe manner of course.

2 comments :

  1. I would take a guess that maybe there is a hold on approving more apps until the a CarPlay (iOS8.3?) update is released. CarPlay's launch was pretty good but there are a few bugs (ex. no audio sometimes).

    It would be nice too if Apple includes a "settings" icon that would let you easily adjust certain things like Siri volume, GPS volume, background art brightness (or on/off), audible text alert via stereo when phone is on vibrate, etc. I know you can adjust the volumes already. but it's apparently not intuitive based on the confused threads I've read on various forums. If there is no CarPlay manual, having some sort of "settings" would be nice.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Podcasts isn't a third-party app, it's developed by Apple.

    ReplyDelete

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