Apple’s iOS 26 operating system brings a new Smart Display Zoom setting to CarPlay which resizes the interface to fit an extra row of app icons.
The setting is available for “some screen configurations,” according to Apple, presumably on higher-resolution car screens. When you turn on this setting, CarPlay will resize the interface to better fit the aspect ratio of the in-car screen, filling the entire native resolution of your display to improve usability.
According to people who have tried out this feature in their vehicle, Smart Display Zoom is great for large displays. You can see how much smaller the menu bar is with Smart Display Zoom turned on in the images in this post.
iOS 26: Smart Display Zoom on CarPlay makes room for more app icons
“Vehicle screens come in many shapes and sizes,” Olivia Hess, a CarPlay software engineer, said in a WWDC25 session video for developers on Apple’s website. “In iOS 26, some screen configurations allow drivers to adjust their display scale with Smart Display Zoom configurable within Settings in CarPlay.”
“When Smart Display Zoom is enabled, your CarPlay app will be automatically resized to the new display scale,” it explains. The feature is disabled by default.
To use Smart Display Zoom, your iPhone must be updated to iOS 26. Apple is currently testing iOS 26, with a public beta version scheduled to arrive in July. Apple will release iOS 26 to the public in September for the iPhone 11 and newer.
CarPlay: How to toggle Smart Display Zoom
As evidenced by the images in this article, which were screenshotted from Apple’s video, Smart Display Zoom makes the CarPlay interface, including the buttons and icons, a tad smaller, just enough to allow for an extra row of app icons.
1) Open the Settings app on CarPlay.
2) Select the Display section.
3) Turn on the “Smart Display Zoom” switch.
“CarPlay will be automatically optimized for your vehicle’s display,” reads the onscreen description.
With iOS 18.4, Apple added a third row of app icons to the CarPlay interface on vehicles equipped with bigger displays versus two rows of app icons on vehicles with smaller infotainment displays. CarPlay automatically displays a third row of app icons if a vehicle has a larger central display.
However, the new Smart Display Zoom setting goes one step further in that it automatically adapts the CarPlay interface to the shape and size of the in-car infotainment display, making it more flexible.
More CarPlay goodies coming by way of iOS 26
iOS 26 brings other changes to CarPlay. Aside from Apple’s Liquid Glass design overhaul (that extends to its other software platforms), CarPlay and CarPlay Ultra bring multitouch support in mapping apps, playing videos from an iPhone while the vehicle is parked, support for widgets, live activities on the Dashboard screen, emoji reactions (Tapbacks) and pinned conversations in the Messages app and more.