The tech battle inside car cabins is heating up, with Apple set to soon roll out video support for CarPlay users, potentially beating those using Android Auto to the punch.
In its latest Apple Developer update for the CarPlay mirroring system, Apple said developers will allow their apps to cast “AirPlay video in the car”, provided they make the necessary tweaks to allow their products to do so.
This will allow users to stream videos from their iPhone – at least from certain applications – to their vehicle’s infotainment screen, but only when the car is parked, due to safety and legal concerns.
While a date hasn’t been announced for the rollout of this feature, it will become available from the release of iOS 26.4, however it also depends on when developers can tweak their apps to allow for video playback on a car’s touchscreen.
It’s yet to be seen what applications will support the new feature, though the likes of YouTube, Netflix and Kayo are expected to eventually be able to be streamed via Apple CarPlay.
Android Auto is yet to support video playback on car infotainment systems, despite being announced in May last year.
It’s also worth noting that there are a number of vehicles which have Android Automotive as a native operating system, allowing them to download YouTube and other video streaming apps without needing a smartphone connection.
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