Appearance and home screen

Theme, Live Activities, Android Auto and the layout of the shortcut grid.

These are two related screens: Appearance, with the theme and presentation features, and Home screen, which organizes the shortcut grid. Both open from Settings.

  1. Choose the theme

    Theme offers Auto, Light and Dark. The Auto option follows the phone setting.

  2. Adjust Android Auto

    Android Auto sets how the sensors are shown on the car's head unit, as a Grid or as a List.

    Car screens have restrictions set by the platform itself, not by the app, on what can be shown while driving.

  3. Turn Live Activities on

    On iPhone, Live Activities show the trip on the lock screen, in the Dynamic Island, in CarPlay and on the Apple Watch.

    You choose what appears between Trip in progress, Trip score and Live sensors.

    Start automatically when you get in the car depends on an automation you create in the Shortcuts app, because iOS only allows a Live Activity to be started with the app on screen. The setting itself lists the steps, and Open Shortcuts takes you to the app. Once the automation exists, the activity starts appearing on its own, even with the app in the background.

  4. Choose the menu display mode

    In Home screen, the Display mode switches between Categories, which keeps the three Driver, Vehicle and Mechanic tabs, and Single view, which gathers every shortcut into one grid.

  5. Sort the shortcuts

    Sorting offers Manual, where you set the order, and Most used, where the app reorders the shortcuts according to your use.

    Organize menu is where the items are reordered and hidden.

  6. Choose the home screen cards

    In Cards, turn the blocks on and off: Vehicle panel, OBD adapter and Parking.

    Anyone not using an adapter frees a good deal of screen space by turning the connectivity card off.

If something goes wrong

They are an iPhone feature and require iOS 18 or later. On Android the equivalent is the persistent trip notification.

Tap the More card at the end of the grid, which reveals the hidden items of that category, or open Organize menu, in Home screen, and turn the item back on.

Sorting is set to Most used. Change it to Manual if you want a fixed order.

The restriction belongs to the platform, not to the app. Car screens limit by design what can be shown while driving, and complex interfaces are not allowed.

iOS only allows a Live Activity to be started with the app on screen, which is why the automatic start depends on an automation in the Shortcuts app. In Appearance, follow the steps listed under Start automatically when you get in the car and use Open Shortcuts to create it.

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