Messages not showing on CarPlay after iOS 18 update

Send your complaint to Apple or call them to complain. This needs to be fixed ASAP.

I no longer see if I am receiving a text message. If my phone is in my purse I don’t even hear the ding. I can still send texts and also ask for a reply to be read but of course you have to know a reply has been sent. The ding isn’t coming through my infotainment centre. I drive a 2025 Chevy trax. My phone is an iphone 13. Never had a bit of problem before ios 18

I had the same issue and concerns. Very dangerous for many reasons

I went to the Apple Store they couldn’t help me. I contacted apple online and spent alot of time. They couldn’t help me I contacted by phone and they couldn’t fix

I searched these threads and they said apple took it away in the last update. I agree it started when I updated my phone

I think they should put it back the other way I don’t want everyone in the car seeing my messages

the only way you can get the messages is to have car play displayed on your screen. Not very safe

On 4/19/25, I have submitted a Bug Report for this issue per the suggestion of another user. Like so many, I do not like the feature of having to have CarPlay on 100% of the time in order to get the banner and the alert notification sound or else you usually just get the sound but no way telling who was sending you a Message, as Corys26 pointed out here in Discussions, that this is a design change and unless many complain about it, I'm sure it will remain as is.

Now, fast-forward from there, this other issue, the one that I composed this post for, is still ongoing. I did recently update to iOS 18.4.1 and there was a note RE: CarPlay. Whatever that was, did not resolve this. The issue still remains that there are no notification sounds that many, in more recent updates, have also experienced and complained about. The most annoying is Siri no longer giving play-by-play directions in Maps for navigation purposes. In my opinion, this issue has become worse than better.

I am waiting to hear back from Apple Support about this.

Thanks.

Just an update. Sorry this is a bit late. But I'm sure by now everyone is on iOS 18.5 and I am noticing no improvement with the issues raised here. I happened to rent a car a week ago (different make that my own) and with the Bluetooth (wireless) connection for Apple CarPlay in this particular vehicle, I experienced no issue. But otherwise, I am still experiencing the issues I and everyone else has mentioned. I have not had an opportunity to inquire with Apple Support. Just wondering if there's been any updates with other users.

Thanks,

JetsetA320

Yep! I got the same issue. Tried an IPhone that had not yet updated to IOS 18 and the pop up text notice was back to working fine. 👍

Yes, I am having the same issue after updating and spent hours on the phone with Apple with no luck. They got information from my phone and sent to engineers and was scheduled to call me back a week ago, but did not

Maybe they’ll put it back if we all file a complaint. It’s unsafe to have to click back to your message app while driving vs just tapping the pop up. I read in another thread you can use your PTT to read the last message though beware of the lengthy ones where Siri reads every number before the actual message which is usually an advertisement or spam.

Same issue on my 23 Sorento and my wife’s 20 Santa Fe.

Text message notifications only working on car play screen and not the car screen, like when I’m listening to Sirius.

If I have the phone not silenced, I will hear the “ding” of the text on whatever screen I’m currently on.

Yup, I agree.

I don’t want change out my phone from silent to ring and then back to silent again upon entering and leaving my car each time.

I guess they want you to stay on CarPlay and not have Apple stuff on the car screen.

My Apple Watch is useless when the phone is connected to the car.

I can see what Sirius channel I am on while on CarPlay, but I like to see the graphics, artist and song title from the Sirius screen

SMH!

Seeing if anyone else is having trouble with text message displays not

showing up on car screen after iOS 18 update. I have checked all

settings on CarPlay and my phone, have reset settings, rebooted my phone

and nothing works. Was able to see the notifications before the update.

I have an iPhone XR

The IOS update to 18 has caused me to not see incoming text messages. This indeed is a huge safety issue to retrieve the messages. Can you please send a fix for this problem because contributes to distracted driving.

It was a great feature. It would allow me to see if it's a message I want to listen to. It's actually less safe. I have to go to the app screen, hit the message and then go back to the Sirius screen. My husband's is working fine. I warned him not to upgrade to iOS 18. I haven't found one feature that is better. Don't even get me started on the size of fonts and icons. I had my phone perfect until this update. Spent days trying to figure out how to downgrade, but that ship sailed. They didn't fix a lot of the issues people hated on the last update. Not sure who they're making the changes for, but it's not the average user.

i have spent over an hour going through settings trying to fix the message pop up. Thanks to everyone that has posted here because I just figured out that it must be in the update.

[Edited by Moderator]

Who do we complain to about this on Apple’s side? I’m hoping Apple has a fix for this in the very near future or I’m switching back to the old iOS. This 18 update has made it very unsafe while driving. For them to have purposely removed the message pop up notification on the main screen feature puts everyone at risk. Maybe Lexus should drop Apple CarPlay altogether if they don’t fix this issue. This is my first car with CarPlay and I was very excited to have this feature and then they robbed us and took it away knowing it was going to cause an issue with people. What great customer service Apple, way to put your customers safety needs at the forefront of your design. 🙄 I’m telling people who use Apple CarPlay NOT to install the iOS 18 update. I’ve got a complaint in with Lexus and if enough people complain to the service department at their dealerships the higher ups will have to do something about it. Let’s hope Apple just does the right thing and finds a fix for us all.