Since Apple’s CarPlay feature first hit cars — with iTunes Radio built-in — whether or not Pandora Radio would ever support the infotainment platform has been a popular question among users. In the past Pandora has left the door open for CarPlay support at some point, noting that Apple controls which apps are allowed to work with it, and Pandora’s CFO went as far as promising it will support CarPlay earlier this year. Fulfilling that promise 7 months later, Pandora Radio has updated its iPhone app to totally support CarPlay:
Updating to the latest version of Pandora Radio for iPhone automatically lets the app appear on CarPlay. The release notes only mention fixing bugs, but the CarPlay app works just as expected.
Launching it once you’re signed in presents a list of your stations you’ve already created. You can tap into one and start streaming music or choose to shuffle all your stations. Some head units have special Pandora integration so expect some interference if that’s the case, but the app generally works well (unlike other CarPlay apps).
The Now Playing screen for Pandora Radio on CarPlay has an action menu next to the playback controls for Thumb Up and Thumb Down. Just like in the Pandora app on iPhone, this lets you mark songs you like and dislike to fine tune your stations to your preferences.
Pandora Radio for iPhone, now with CarPlay support, is available for free on the App Store. You can check out our CarPlay review here plus what’s new with CarPlay in iOS 9 here.
