Google said on Wednesday, Nov. 11, that it is bringing its Gemini app to Apple CarPlay, the system that puts an iPhone's apps on a car's built-in screen. Drivers tap the Gemini icon on the car's display and talk with Gemini Live, the app's voice mode. Google says people can interrupt it to add a detail, change the subject, or pause when they need to focus on an exit.
Google pitches Gemini on CarPlay as a way to use time behind the wheel. Drivers can ask what's on their calendar, catch up on unread emails, hear a summary of a long email thread, talk through a reply, find a lunch spot where they're headed or rehearse a presentation out loud. Gemini can answer from a person's own inbox and schedule because it connects to Gmail and Google Calendar. The conversations sync to the Gemini app on the iPhone, so they are waiting there after the driver parks.
Google says the feature is rolling out globally starting Nov. 11 to all Gemini users on iPhone, in every language Gemini Live supports. To use it, people update the Gemini app, let it use the microphone, and try Gemini Live on the phone at least once before connecting to the car. The daily briefing has to be switched on first, Google says, and it and some other personal features aren't offered to people under 18, in the European Economic Area or in Nigeria.
Gemini is one of the last big AI chatbots to reach CarPlay with its own app, according to a news report. Apple's CarPlay has a place for apps that people mainly talk to, and ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Copilot, Meta AI and Grok already have CarPlay versions, the same report says. It adds that some Gemini features worked inside Google Maps on CarPlay before, but not the Gemini app's voice chats. Google had also brought Gemini to Android Auto, which puts an Android phone's apps on a car's screen, and to cars with Google software built in.
Google says it designed Gemini on CarPlay to keep distraction to a minimum and to let drivers talk with it without using their hands, though starting a chat takes a tap on the car's screen. Its post doesn't say how long the rollout will take to reach every iPhone, and the app update had not yet appeared on launch morning, a news report says.