Right now we have a CarPlay-enabled car with two regular users that have different cables (USB-C vs. Lightning) so the cable needs to be replaced every time the driver switches. We also need to plug our devices for CarPlay, which is a bit inconvenient if the device is fully charged and we just want to take a short trip.
I want to use Wireless CarPlay, but most solutions that offer multi-user support also require disabling default auto-pairing config and performing a manual selection every time. That means the Phone A vs. Phone B selection process will be hacky and probably require software interactions that would be worse than plugging in a cable.
A simpler solution in my opinion is to avoid software that supports multi-user altogether. Find a cheaper Wireless CarPlay adapter that only supports one device and then put two of them on a bidirectional USB splitter. Each device gets paired to a dedicated dongle and I don’t ever have to fight pairing handoff issues or delays. Then there is a physical button that can be pressed to switch active adapters.
Doesn’t work? Press the button. User experience would be either: get in car and have Wireless CarPlay immediately because they were the last one to use the CarPlay setup, or notice CarPlay not working and press the button to result in it working.
It’s possible that the “2nd port user” would always have to press the button if the USB switch gets reset to 1st port every time it is power cycled. Not really any workaround if this is the case, but I think pressing a button is a better experience over having to get phone out, wrangle/replace cable, and plug in.
Here’s what I landed on:
- this cheap USB splitter
- optional button-on-a-cable which seems great for cars
- doesn’t require external power
- two Mini Wireless CarPlay Adapters
- instant auto-connect
- only single-device support (actually a strong bonus for us)
Works great so far!
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