Then came that weird period when BMW wanted to charge people an annual subscription fee.

Not every BMW produced since CarPlay’s release has it active, and even in some newer vehicles, there isn’t a way how to activate Apple CarPlay.įor a while, it was an optional extra. It isn’t quite that simple to say what year BMW has Apple CarPlay, though. How do I know if my BMW has Apple CarPlay? In the world of BMWs, CarPlay was first available as an option from the dealer in 2016, so they’re the oldest vehicles that are going to have the native BMW CarPlay setup active. Still, you can add Apple CarPlay to an older car with a third party retrofit, even with an older iDrive system like the BMW CIC CarPlay MMI Prime from BimmerTech is compatible with vehicles produced well before CarPlay was even released. If your vehicle is older than that, you can be sure it didn’t come with CarPlay from the factory, and there almost certainly won’t be any way how to install Apple CarPlay without adding additional, more up-to-date hardware. Well, the first thing to keep in mind is that it was released in 2014. So you’ve decided BMW Apple CarPlay could be good for you. Some streaming apps, like Netflix, may use DRM technology to restrict mirroring, in which case you still have no way to get it on the BMW iDrive display. Just keep in mind that not all apps support casting via AirPlay. Then, you wouldn’t be limited to using only the apps available on CarPlay, and can instead mirror your phone to the iDrive screen, to access additional content in your car. Some BMW CarPlay aftermarket kits bundle Screen Mirroring / AirPlay support, such as BimmerTech’s CarPlay MMI Prime.

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