F82 M4- Apple carplay worth it?

[Jamescrs]

I have a 66 plate F82 M4, absolutely love the car.

I bought it on the assumption it didn't have Apple Carplay or Android Auto ho9wever when I go into the My BMW app where the car is registered BMW give me an option to activate Apple Carplay for £260, I assume my car must be one of the very early ones where Apple Carplay was an option?

It's obviously not a cheap option and to add complication I currently have a Samsung phone however I would be willing to swap to Apple if the Apple Carplay is worth it on this model of BMW.

I know an option would be to swap out the headunit for an aftermarket product but I personally prefer to maintain the originality of the car even if it will cost me a chunk of money.

My question is does anyone have Apple carplay on this age of BMW and how does it function, is it a smooth experience worth having?

[AB]

I had Carplay in mine and used it all the time. But not everyone loves it. Certainly didn't find it hard to use. Bonus being everything is always up to date and you can jump from car to car and have the same set up immediately.

Not a deal breaker though as I never struggled with the standard Pro Nav set up.

[Jamescrs]

AB said:

I had Carplay in mine and used it all the time. But not everyone loves it. Certainly didn't find it hard to use. Bonus being everything is always up to date and you can jump from car to car and have the same set up immediately.

Not a deal breaker though as I never struggled with the standard Pro Nav set up.

I must admit I do like the Pronav, its a big improvement on the small screen I had previously in my M240i.

Thanks for your reply, appreciate it

[AB]

Just to add another couple of thoughts, it integrates well into the car with being able to hold down the voice button on the wheel to launch siri and major bonus is better routing assuming you don't have connected services still activated? Google Maps/Waze i find much better than the built in nav and it's SO much easier with podcasts/music etc.

[Jamescrs]

AB said:

Just to add another couple of thoughts, it integrates well into the car with being able to hold down the voice button on the wheel to launch siri and major bonus is better routing assuming you don't have connected services still activated? Google Maps/Waze i find much better than the built in nav and it's SO much easier with podcasts/music etc.

I currently have connected services having just bought the car approved used but im.not keen on renewing them.every year again like I did with my last BMW.

Being able to.use Google maps on the in car screen is a major draw for.me to go.down the car play route.

[Pupp]

Same for me on a M2C save for Waze… was a shock when Android wasn’t supported. I did migrate to iOS but resented having to.

[Jamescrs]

Pupp said:

Same for me on a M2C save for Waze… was a shock when Android wasn’t supported. I did migrate to iOS but resented having to.

I'm.a bit the same way, I have a Samsung watch, Samsung buds and Samsung wireless charger.

Seems like the buds will work.as bluetooth earbuds so.i can live with that, the wireless charger may work but the watch would probably have to be sold.

[Duratecbuh]

Jamescrs said:

Pupp said:

Same for me on a M2C save for Waze… was a shock when Android wasn’t supported. I did migrate to iOS but resented having to.

I'm.a bit the same way, I have a Samsung watch, Samsung buds and Samsung wireless charger.

Seems like the buds will work.as bluetooth earbuds so.i can live with that, the wireless charger may work but the watch would probably have to be sold.

Have a look at the free app "AAidrive" in the Google play store.

It allows some of the native android functions to work on the BMW infotainment, albeit... not maps. It also restores Spotify integration, something BMW / Spotify broke about 2 years ago.

I have a work supplied iPhone, using that is like trying to communicate with one thumb in your mouth, and the other up your a.. in comparison to the user experience of my personal phone (Google Pixel), it definitely wouldn't make me swap to iOS to get the BMW integration.

[DVandrews]

Wouldn’t be without it in mine, prat navs (whatever you choose) will be superior to the inbuilt Nav and will carry the latest info. Whatsapp, messenger, Spotify etc are very handy to have in the move.

[dxg]

Jamescrs said:

Pupp said:

Same for me on a M2C save for Waze… was a shock when Android wasn’t supported. I did migrate to iOS but resented having to.

I'm.a bit the same way, I have a Samsung watch, Samsung buds and Samsung wireless charger.

Seems like the buds will work.as bluetooth earbuds so.i can live with that, the wireless charger may work but the watch would probably have to be sold.

You can buy boxes that plug into the car's usb port and pretend to be an iphone. You then connect your android phone to that box and it will send android auto to the car using the carplay protocol.

https://www.carplaylife.com/feature/top-5-best-car...

[Jamescrs]

dxg said:

You can buy boxes that plug into the car's usb port and pretend to be an iphone. You then connect your android phone to that box and it will send android auto to the car using the carplay protocol.

https://www.carplaylife.com/feature/top-5-best-car...

Thats very interesting thank you, will have a look.

Still not sold on the IPhone, webt to the apple store today and as a long term Android user I found Apple very difficult to use though I'm sure I'd get used to it.

[Uncle Meat]

I'm in a similar situation but haven't bothered to add Apple Carplay to my F85 as I prefer my Samsung S23 Ultra to anything Apple can tempt me with.

BMW may do their usual Black Friday discount though which I guess is coming up soon
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=19...

[Vee]

I had it on my 2017 M3 and went the BMW route due to not wanting to affect the warranty (discounted prices around Black Friday in November).
The BMW official solution on that model is rubbish in that carplay only appears on the left half of the screen with right half being unused.
If you are out of warranty find someone like ZedCoding who activate a full screen version.

Edited by Vee on Tuesday 26th September 14:52

[Jeremy-57bxb]

Surely the main benefit of Apple Car Play or Android Auto is having unlimited music (Spotfiy) and radio stations at your beck and call? Which for me is an essential these days.

[doc261]

You can get a Spotify app from connected drive store without having to use CarPlay

[Jamescrs]

I forgot I started this thread.

So in the end I have changed to an I phone 15 Pro and I paid BMW to activate Car play on my car.

I have now got used to the Apple way of using a device and whilst I don't think theres any great benefit of Apple Over Android or vice versa I do like the way the I phone does some things, it has certainly moved on since I had an I phone 6.

I do very much like having Car play in the car, it's a very nice feature to have albeit it's not been cheap to get to this point.

[Colinv6]

I have it in my M4, have never used it. I just use the normal idrive menu’s.

[carguy45]

I have it in mine and use it daily. But I think usage depends on how much you use things like music and google maps and so on through your iPhone, I would use them regularly so find access to them via the car hmi to be very handy.

My only gripe is that it doesn't utilise the full screen area but this seems to be a common complaint. I'm pretty sure there's a way to enable full screen via an iDrive update but I haven't explored it yet in detail.

[Jamescrs]

carguy45 said:

I have it in mine and use it daily. But I think usage depends on how much you use things like music and google maps and so on through your iPhone, I would use them regularly so find access to them via the car hmi to be very handy.

My only gripe is that it doesn't utilise the full screen area but this seems to be a common complaint. I'm pretty sure there's a way to enable full screen via an iDrive update but I haven't explored it yet in detail.

I'm finding the same regarding the Full screen, there is a guy local to me who advertises BMW coding on Facebook who has said he can do the update to make it full screen and said the cost would be £100-£200 depending on what I drive version I have.

I'll probably do it at some point but I just haven't been bothered to get the idrive version number for him so far

[ladderino]

Jamescrs said:

I'm finding the same regarding the Full screen, there is a guy local to me who advertises BMW coding on Facebook who has said he can do the update to make it full screen and said the cost would be £100-£200 depending on what I drive version I have.

I'll probably do it at some point but I just haven't been bothered to get the idrive version number for him so far

I've had mine updated to full screen, it's much better than the half screen format.

It does depend on firmware what the options are. Some firmware versions require upgrading the firmware, but this is a pretty big deal and requires external battery charger.

I spoke with a super helpful chap on Bimmerpost, he provided me with a feature installer code for no charge, and I just coded it myself.