The Dynamic Island, introduced with the iPhone 14 Pro, has become a standard feature across Apple’s lineup, evolving from a simple camera cutout into a functional interface element. By leveraging the space around the front-facing camera and sensors, Apple transformed a hardware constraint into a dynamic display area capable of showing timers, navigation cues, music controls, and sports scores. Third-party applications, particularly those for food delivery and flight tracking, have also adopted this technology to provide real-time updates without requiring users to open specific apps.
Although Live Activities are typically enabled by default, users may need to manually activate them for certain applications. To do this, navigate to Settings on your iPhone, select Apps, and choose the specific application experiencing issues. Ensure that the Live Activities toggle is switched on. While these activities function independently of standard notifications, enabling push notifications for the app can help ensure updates are received promptly.
For users who want Live Activities to appear on the Lock screen when the device is not in active use, additional configuration is required. Go to Settings, then Face ID & Passcode, enter your passcode, and scroll to the Allow Access When Locked section. Here, verify that the Live Activities option is enabled.
CarPlay integrates with this feature, allowing drivers to monitor important information such as delivery status or flight updates without significant distraction. These activities automatically appear on the CarPlay Dashboard, which occupies the left side of the split-screen interface. If an app is being used in full-screen mode, Live Activities will still present themselves as notifications at the bottom of the display.
If Live Activities are not appearing in CarPlay, check the Settings app within the CarPlay interface. Ensure that the Live Activities toggle is active and that the Suggestions in CarPlay, or Suggestions in Dashboard, option is turned on. Additionally, if Driving Focus is enabled, it may interfere with these displays, so try disabling it temporarily. Users can also further customize their CarPlay experience by adding widgets to the leftmost section of the Dashboard for quicker access to app information.
Still can’t get Uber to show up properly. Maybe I need a newer phone?
Apple really turned that camera notch into something useful. The real-time delivery tracking is a game-changer.
Great guide! Is there any way to customize the colors of the widgets on the CarPlay dashboard?
I never knew Driving Focus could block these. That fixed my issue immediately!