Hello everyone,
I am currently developing a simple driver log book app and I’m hitting a wall regarding a seamless user experience.
My goal is very straightforward: I want my app to be notified/triggered in the background as soon as CarPlay is activated or deactivated, so it can automatically start or stop tracking a trip.
Even with the official CarPlay entitlement granted, I cannot find a reliable API or workaround to achieve this. It feels like something that should be incredibly simple.
I know that Apple Shortcuts (Kurzbefehle) handles this beautifully—the automation triggers for CarPlay work great. However, from an app developer's perspective, this isn't a viable solution for production:
- The average user will never go through the hassle of manually creating a Shortcut automation just to make the app work.
- Third-party apps are not allowed to programmatically create or inject these automation triggers for the user.
It’s quite disappointing because the OS clearly detects the state perfectly, but doesn't expose a clean way for eligible navigation/driving apps to act on it in the background.
Has anyone found a robust workaround for this? Or is there a specific API within the CarPlay framework I am overlooking that allows background execution exactly at the moment of connection/disconnection?
Appreciate any insights or feedback!
