I'm not sure I understand your question. Would't using Siri be just like using regular CarPlay? I think it's the same. I use Siri 99% of the time to call up random songs via Apple Music on Carplay and never even take the phone out of my pocket!!

 

thanks for the response. I’m talking bout using Apple Music w/o connecting to CarPlay. Using voice only to control the ui, while the phone is tucked away.

 

I think it's going to be about as good/bad as Siri normally is. The mic in the i4 is very good, so that's not going to be a limiting factor, and I've found that the "talk to the robot" button on the steering wheel works well and consistently. However, I'm not sure if Siri integration works without a CarPlay connection, so outside of the phone listening you may not be able to invoke it with the "Hey Siri" command other than with the phone's mic. How well that works is obviously going to be dependent upon where the phone is; if you have it in the armrest, for example, I wouldn't expect it to work well, if at all. On the phone tray, maybe.

Unless you've got a good reason not to use it, I think you'd be much better off just connecting with CarPlay. That's clearly how Apple & BMW expect for a phone to be used in the car, and IMO it's what's going to work best.

 

While I use Apple Music, but on an Android phone and via AA, I would assume that you can connect your iPhone via BT audio, with CarPlay disabled in Mobile Devices and the phone should still be able to recognize voice prompts to Siri.

 

Yeah, I'm not telling OP how to use his car – he knows his needs better than I do – but I'm failing to see why just letting CarPlay do its thing is a problem. Once it's playing a song, it's pretty much transparent – 99% of the time I stay in iDrive and don't even see the CarPlay interface. Additionally, Siri integration is going to work a whole lot better when CarPlay is running. Just seems like it's probably the better, easier answer rather than trying to swim upstream.

 

Yeah, in an ideal world I would have a native Apple Music and podcast apps and wouldn’t need CarPlay. What I am trying to avoid is flipping between the CarPlay interface and the native UI.

 

Maybe I'm being dense, but could you please explain in a different way? For example, what do you mean when you say, "fire up CarPlay"? Doesn't it just automatically connect when you get into the car?


Can you give a more concrete example of the type of UI control you'd specifically want while the phone is tucked away? Selecting a song? Selecting a Playlist?

I feel like I missing some information.

Maybe I'm being dense, but could you please explain in a different way? For example, what do you mean when you say, "fire up CarPlay"? Doesn't it just automatically connect when you get into the car?


Can you give a more concrete example of the type of UI control you'd specifically want while the phone is tucked away? Selecting a song? Selecting a Playlist?

I feel like I missing some information.

I would love to be able to use Apple Music natively (like you can with Spotify, for example) w/o the need to connect to car play at all. Rivian have this in their cars. But then you have to drive a rivian…

 

So, you'd like Apple Music to be a native app in the BMW screen like they do on Tesla and Rivian? Hmm...that's only necessary because they don't have CarPlay. With BMW you have the best of both worlds:

1) You have seamless CarPlay integration which makes Apple Music transparently available at all times
2) You can connect your phone via BlueTooth and use Apple Music that way (without connecting CarPlay)
3) You can plugin your iPhone via USB and play Apple Music songs via the native BMW music interface

Sounds like #3 is closest to what you want, but it sounds quite inconvenient.

BTW, if you don't like CarPlay taking over the native screen, you can always push the -Media- or -Navigation- buttons and it will swap between CarPlay and the native BMW interface.

 

That being said, Spotify does have an iDrive native app, so...

I'm not sure if Apple does it as a concession to Tesla & Rivian, or if BMW just doesn't have an interest in having a native Apple Music app. Hard to say which is the chicken and which is the egg in these situations.

 

That being said, Spotify does have an iDrive native app, so...

I'm not sure if Apple does it as a concession to Tesla & Rivian, or if BMW just doesn't have an interest in having a native Apple Music app. Hard to say which is the chicken and which is the egg in these situations.

I know that in the case of Rivian, Apple collaborated with them on the app. No idea about Tesla. As for using Spotify, I have a whole host of reasons why I stay away from that service.