Why are CarPlay announcements so quiet?

Why are CarPlay announcements so quiet?

Q My new car supports Apple CarPlay, so I’ve been experimenting with it for navigation. However, although the map routing works well enough, the direction announcements are much too quiet. My iPhone’s volume is set to maximum, and everything else works at a reasonable volume level. Any ideas?

Terry Dunn

A You didn’t tell us which car you’re driving, but in some vehicles you can set the volume of driving directions independently of everything else. In most cases, you can only adjust the volume of direction announcements while your phone is making one. As such announcements tend to be quite short, opportunities to adjust the volume are limited – even when you know that’s what you have to do.

So, while this solution is far from obvious, that’s probably all there is to it. Our tip would be to set a route while your vehicle is stationary and be ready to twiddle your car system’s volume dial when CarPlay delivers its first direction. That way, you won’t have to mess about with the controls while you’re driving.