Add a Countdown to CarPlay 🚗

Since iOS 26, CarPlay can show small widgets beside your apps. Every small Emoji Countdown widget already works there, so the days left until your holiday, a birthday or the big match can ride along on every drive 🏖️

Set it up in four steps

You add CarPlay widgets on your iPhone, not on the car’s screen, so do it while you’re parked 🅿️

1. Open Settings and tap General, then CarPlay.
2. Tap your car, then Widgets.
3. Tap Add Widget, choose Emoji Countdown and pick a widget.
4. Get in the car and swipe across the CarPlay screen to find it ✅

To move or remove a widget later, go back to Widgets and drag it, or tap the remove button. If your countdown shares a stack with other widgets, turn off Smart Rotate so it stays on top. How many widgets fit at once depends on the size of your car’s screen.

Which widgets work best

CarPlay uses small widgets, and every Emoji Countdown widget comes in that size:

• Show your next event 🎂 is one big emoji and the days to go. The easiest to read at a glance.
• Show your upcoming events 📋 fits a few of your soonest countdowns in one tile, as a list or a grid of emoji.
• Time Progress ⏳ shows how much of the month, quarter and year is left.

Good to know

• CarPlay shows widgets in full colour with their background removed, so your emoji sit cleanly on the dashboard. The background colours from Widget Appearance stay on your iPhone.
• Tapping a widget in CarPlay doesn’t open the app. Emoji Countdown doesn’t have a CarPlay app, so the widget is there to read, not to tap.
• You need iOS 26 or later and a car with CarPlay.

Got a road trip coming up? Put the countdown where you’ll see it, and enjoy the drive 🥳