When CarPlay is running on your infotainment system in your car, there's a small, unassuming box in the lower-left corner.

If you tap it, it splits the view into multiple screens. It lets you see the contents of several CarPlay apps at once, rather than having one app dominate the entire screen and forcing you to swap between the ones you're using. Not only is it safer, with more of your attention on the road rather than switching between apps, but it has also transformed the way I use CarPlay.

More of my attention remains on the road, not on app menus

It means safer driving

My biggest gripe with CarPlay was that I had to choose between keeping my GPS pulled up — a necessity for those born without any sense of direction, like myself — or keeping an eye on what I'm listening to. When Spotify starts up a song that resonates with me, I try to add it to my Liked Songs list. That's not easy to do when I'm driving down the interstate at 80mph. I have to swap from Google Maps to Spotify, select the Now Playing option to see the current song, tap the plus sign to add to my playlist, and then switch back to Maps.

Sure, that might only take a few seconds in practice, but that's still time that something could happen that could result in an accident. With the split-screen mode, I can see the song that's playing and my GPS at the same time. Tapping the Spotify box brings up the Spotify app and lets me quickly save a song, reducing the number of steps. Is it a perfect solution? No, not at all, but it's a lot better than the alternative.

The driving experience feels more unified

More like a cockpit than an accessory

When I first started driving, cars didn't have expansive displays inside them. The most advanced piece of tech in my car was satellite radio. When I started using CarPlay in its earliest iterations, it felt disconnected and disjointed — a collection of different systems that almost, but not quite, worked together. With CarPlay in split-screen mode, it doesn't feel like I'm jumping between tasks, but rather that I'm able to monitor different streams of information at the same time. I can glance down and see what song is playing, what events are coming up later that day, and much more.

Of course, the screen can be customized. I give Google Maps the largest piece of the pie because that's what I need to see most, but users can adjust CarPlay's configuration by going to Settings > General > CarPlay, then selecting the vehicle they want to customize. Select it from the list, then choose either Apps or Widgets. Apps let you tweak the items you can quickly jump to from within CarPlay, while Widgets adjusts how things appear on the screen. For example, I don't need to know what is coming up next on my calendar while I'm driving, so I remove that from my setup. I do, however, want to know the temperature, so I leave that visible alongside Spotify and Audible.

The downside? Reducing the amount of screen real estate makes navigation harder

GPS works better in full screen

When I split the screen into sections, it lets me see more streams of information at once, but it also makes it harder to use any one of those streams, especially if it needs a decent amount of screen space. As I've said, I rely heavily on Google Maps to make sure I can actually find my way anywhere.

The split-screen version of the app displays a fair bit of information, but not nearly as much as the full-screen version. I often return to using only Google Maps when I'm trying to navigate somewhere unfamiliar, as I prefer a larger map and more instructions. Then again, I'm also one of those people who turns off the radio when I'm trying to think, so my brain clearly doesn't handle multitasking well.

CarPlay is great, but there's always room for improvement

CarPlay (and Android Auto) are two of the best innovations for vehicles in recent years, but despite their prevalence, the tools still have a lot of room to grow. I use CarPlay daily, and I've noticed quite a few small annoyances over time. Giving too many commands too quickly can cause it to lag and behave oddly, and the transition between apps takes far longer than it should.

CarPlay also makes it difficult to swipe away notifications, so if I'm trying to see upcoming directions at the same time a text message comes in, there's a nonzero chance I'll have it read the text aloud rather than showing me where to turn.