How to Use Your Phone in the Car Without Killing Anyone
All the time, only a fingerprint or a drawing on the screen is distracted, and when you are driving, it is simply not safe. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports that in 2018, 400,000 people were injured in distraction traffic accidents and 2,841 people died.
However, using your phone in your car can help you make the most of your time, navigate your route, and stay in touch with family and friends in the event of an emergency. So, is there a safe way to use your phone in the car? We think so, but with caution: driving is an ongoing activity that deserves your full attention.
While these tips can certainly help you stay focused on the road, you also need to keep your focus on it, no matter what’s going on on your phone. At the end of this short talk, here are some ways to make driving on the phone a little safer for you and others on the road, whether you prefer an iPhone or Android.
Set up Do Not Disturb While Driving on iPhone.
While you can always customize your iPhone’s notification settings relative to, iOS now comes with built-in Do Not Disturb While Driving. You can set this feature to turn on automatically when your iPhone detects you’re driving, or you can turn it on and off manually, ideally not when your hands are on the wheel.
To set up Do Not Disturb for driving:
- Open the Settings app and tap Do Not Disturb.
- Click Activate next to Do Not Disturb While Driving.
- In the next window, select the option you want. “Automatically” will turn it on when you drive and turn it off when you stop; “When connected to car Bluetooth” activates it when your phone is connected to the car hands-free system; “Manual” means you have to turn it on and off in the settings screen; and “Activate by Carplay” will enable Do Not Disturb mode when your phone connects to Apple CarPlay if your vehicle has the technology.
After activating the function, your phone will remain dark and silent except for emergency alerts, timers and alarms. If the message arrives, the sender will receive an automatic reply that you are driving. If they respond with the word “urgent”, they can break your Do Not Disturb security. As for the calls, if your phone is connected to the Bluetooth system, all calls will go through. But if not, you can set up the system so that calls are only allowed from people you choose, or if someone calls twice in a row in a short amount of time.
To change Do Not Disturb settings:
- Open the Settings app and tap Do Not Disturb.
- Click “Allow calls from” and select the group whose calls you will allow to exit the silent mode of the phone.
- Click “Autoresponder” to set the segment of your contacts that will be blocked and receive an automatic message.
- Tap Voicemail to customize the message you send to blocked contacts while driving.
Please note that even in Do Not Disturb While Driving mode, all your messages will be sent to your phone and you can read them after you stop driving. You can also ask Siri, the iOS voice assistant, to read your notifications while you drive.
If you have Driving Mode enabled and you are a passenger in someone else’s car, Do Not Disturb will still be activated, but you can simply tap I’m Not Driving to turn it off. In addition, if you use your phone to navigate, map and route information will still display in Do Not Disturb mode, and Siri will continue to announce your course.
Use Android Auto to stay safe while driving
Android Auto is Google’s version of Apple CarPlay, except that it can work on both Android phones and the dashboards of cars equipped with this technology. We’ll focus on the version of Android Auto that runs on your phone.
Android Auto works best if your phone is running Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) or later. It will still work on Android 5.0 (Lollipop), but you may have performance issues. Also, the following instructions will work on all Android phones with operating systems 5.0 to 9.0. Android 10 phones are slightly different and we’ll cover them in a minute.
To get started, you need to download the Android Auto app from the Google Play store. Launch it and you will see a series of warning screens about using your phone while driving. Make sure you allow the app to access certain apps and features on your phone (for example, the SMS messaging app, calendar, and contacts), and link Google Assistant to the app. We cannot recommend this last step enough as Google Assistant is indeed the backbone of Android Auto.
During installation, you may also be asked to add certain applications if they are not already installed on your phone, such as Google Maps.
After completing Android Auto setup, launch the app to see a simplified version of your phone screen. It provides basic information such as weather, messages from apps you’ve connected to Android Auto, and one or two navigation options. The text is larger and very easy to read, so you can spend less time looking at the screen and more time looking at the windshield. Plus, you can access Google Assistant with your voice and ask it to read messages, get directions, play news, and just about anything Assistant is known for .
You can also activate voice mode by tapping the microphone in the upper right corner. When you’re done viewing any of the white tile notifications, swipe left or right to clear them. To exit Android Auto, just click the round button in the lower left corner.
To set up Android Auto, tap the hamburger button in the upper left corner and then tap Settings. Some of the options you’ll see include:
- The ability to automatically resume your phone on whatever media it played the last time you were driving.
- Weather display setting.
- Turn message notifications on or off, and choose whether you want the notifications to emit any beeps.
- The phone automatically turns on Bluetooth when the app starts.
You will also have the option to automatically launch the app when your phone is near a specific Bluetooth device, such as a speaker or dash display in your car. From the settings screen, you can also tap Google Assistant, where, if you haven’t already, you can customize features such as what you want to cover in your roundup.
If you have a Pixel 4, Pixel 3A, or Pixel 3 phone, you’ll also have the option on the Settings screen to have your phone automatically enter Do Not Disturb or Android Auto mode when you’re driving.
What about Android Auto on Android 10?
For any phone running Android 10, there is no need to download the Android Auto app as long as all you need is a link to your car’s display as it is already built into the operating system. However, if you want to use it on your phone, you need to download Android Auto for Phone Screens, which you can get here .