iOS 26 quietly fixes one of CarPlay’s most annoying quirks

iOS 26 is now in its public beta testing stage before its official release with the new iPhones in the fall. The new OS brings plenty of changes, including the gorgeous new Liquid Glass design and improvements across the board. Luckily for CarPlay users, Apple also brings Liquid Glass and support for widgets to your car with iOS 26. But there’s a relatively small change that is also coming to CarPlay with iOS 26. Although this one isn’t as noticeable as the Liquid Glass look or the widgets, it’s still a years-long feature request for many CarPlay users: the ability to disable CarPlay screenshots. 

For years, you were able to take a screenshot of your CarPlay display by taking a screenshot on your iPhone. Although this feature can be handy, most of the time it’s pretty annoying, especially if your iPhone is connected to CarPlay (so, you’re in your car), but you want to take a screenshot only of your iPhone’s screen. 

Due to this, many people can end up having quite a lot of unneeded CarPlay screenshots in their Photos. Well, iOS 26 is here to fix this little annoyance. 

CarPlay screenshots are, actually, disabled by default in iOS 26. When you update to iOS 26, taking a screenshot on your iPhone while connected to CarPlay will no longer automatically capture your CarPlay display. 

In case you want the capability back, you can enable it from the Settings app. To do that, you need to go to General, then tap on “Screen Capture” and then toggle on the new “CarPlay Screenshots” option. 

I think this is a small but very welcome change. It shows that Apple is listening to feedback, even on little things that can get annoying over time. Most people probably don’t need screenshots of their CarPlay screen, so turning it off by default makes sense. And for those who do want it, it’s still easy to switch back on. It’s a thoughtful tweak that just helps keep things simpler and cleaner for everyday users.