How to Enable Live Activities on iPhone and CarPlay

At a time when most Android phones had already moved to tiny punch-hole cutouts to house their front-facing cameras, the iPhone 14 Pro launched with a long, pill-shaped cutout. Apple has used it as a standard since then, outside of budget ‘e’ phones and the iPhone Duo, and even made it smaller for the iPhone 18 Pro series.

Indeed, iPhones contain more than just a camera inside the cutout; additional sensors are required for Face ID to work. Instead of hiding the pill with cleverly designed wallpapers, Apple leaned into it with Dynamic Island, using the surrounding area to turn an otherwise awkward design constraint into a useful part of the iOS experience.

Live activity from your iPhone appears on Dynamic Island when you use your phone. They display information you may want to monitor without having to constantly return to the associated app: timers, navigation instructions, music playback and sports scores can be displayed as live activities. Many third-party apps such as food delivery and flight tracking services have also adapted to use Dynamic Island.

Live Activities should be enabled by default, but if you don’t see them for certain apps, check if they were accidentally disabled. On your iPhone, go to Settings > Apps and select any app that is giving you trouble. Make sure the Live Activities the cursor is activated. Although Live Activities works independently of regular notifications, you may also want to enable notifications for the app if you don’t see expected updates.

These activities will also appear on the lock screen when you are not using your device. To ensure this option is enabled, visit Settings > Face ID & Password. Confirm your password, then scroll to Allow access when locked section and make sure Live Activities is on.

CarPlay makes it easy to access vital information on your iPhone without getting too distracted while driving. As part of this, it can display live activities so you can track the status of a food delivery or updates on an upcoming flight.

Live activity from your iPhone is automatically displayed on the CarPlay dashboard, the split-screen view to the left of your apps list. If you’re using an app that covers the entire screen, live activities will still be displayed as notifications at the bottom of the screen. If they become too annoying, you can always turn off the feature in CarPlay or turn off Live Activities for specific noisy apps, as above.

If you don’t see them, open the Settings application in CarPlay, scroll down and make sure the Live Activities the toggle is activated. You must also confirm the Suggestions in CarPlay (Or Suggestions in the dashboard) is enabled. If they still don’t appear, try disabling Driving Focus if it’s running.

On top of that, you can add widgets to CarPlay for quick controls and app information without having to open them. Widgets are found in the leftmost section of the CarPlay dashboard. Spend a little more time in the Settings app and you’ll discover more ways to customize the way CarPlay looks on your car’s screen.