Porsche just gave CarPlay users greatly improved access to their car's features on the go

(Image credit: Porsche)

Owners of Porsche cars now have an upgraded CarPlay experience to enjoy after the company announced an update to its My Porsche App.

The updated app is available for download now and is available to owners of the new Porsche Cayenne, the company says. It'll be rolled out to older model lines in the future but for now, you'll need to be driving that particular SUV to enjoy the updated app.

And enjoy it, you will. Once installed the new app will put features right into the CarPlay experience that would otherwise require using physical controls or leaving CarPlay entirely. Examples include climate control, ambient lighting controls, and more.

Brum brum

Porsche announced its updated My Porsche App via a press release that detailed exactly what drivers can look forward to.

"The updated My Porsche App combines vehicle functions with the CarPlay experience, including the ability to show images of the specific model within CarPlay," the press release explains. "Core functions that can be conveniently adjusted even via the My Porsche App include audio settings such as sound profiles, changing radio stations, adjusting settings for climate control and ambient lighting."

There's more, too. "In addition, these functions can be combined into wellness modes, such as “relax”, “warm up” and “refresh”, using quick actions in CarPlay". And as you'd expect, Siri support is built in so you can ask Apple's digital assistant to do its thing instead of tapping at the on-screen buttons.

Owners of the Cayenne will no doubt want to take this new CarPlay experience for a spin as soon as possible and we can only hope that other carmakers follow suit in the future. Apple's iOS 16 was supposed to usher in a number of new CarPlay features including integration with the vehicle itself. That has yet to happen, but this app-based approach could possibly bridge the gap for the time being.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.