GM Reverses Course, Restores Apple CarPlay and Android Auto to Its Top-Selling Trucks

General Motors is reversing a signature piece of its software strategy, restoring Apple CarPlay and Android Auto to its best-selling pickup trucks three years after the automaker said it would strip smartphone mirroring out of its vehicles to push customers toward its own in-house systems. The company unveiled the change this week as part of a broader redesign of the in-vehicle software on the 2027 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra, the two full-size trucks that anchor GM's North American profits.

Under the new design, CarPlay and Android Auto no longer take over the entire center screen, as they did on GM vehicles that still support them. Instead, the phone-mirroring systems run inside a large window alongside native GM functions such as trailering data, tire pressure and fuel range, an approach GM engineers describe as "window-in-window." Apple's and Google's software sits beside, rather than instead of, GM's own interface.

The numbers

The reversal touches a large share of GM's business. The Silverado and Sierra together sold 934,349 units in the United States last year — 581,002 Silverados and 353,347 Sierras, according to sales-tracking data — making the pair GM's highest-volume, highest-margin nameplates and the first vehicles to carry the redesigned software when they reach dealerships later this year as 2027 models.

The new interface also arrives alongside a data point that undercuts GM's original rationale for dropping phone mirroring. In its 2026 U.S. Vehicle Dependability Study, J.D. Power found that Android Auto and Apple CarPlay connectivity was the single most common problem reported by owners industry-wide for a third consecutive year, at 8.9 problems per 100 vehicles, part of a broader cluster of phone-integration complaints that made up roughly a quarter of all infotainment-related grievances. A separate survey by the retailer American Trucks, cited by industry newsletter Dealership Guy, found 55% of Apple CarPlay users and 36% of Android Auto users called the absence of the features a dealbreaker when shopping for a new vehicle, with 42% of GM owners specifically saying the same regardless of which phone they carried.

How GM got here

GM first said in 2023 that it would remove Apple CarPlay and Android Auto from its electric vehicles, arguing that a proprietary, GM-built infotainment system would let it collect more driver data and eventually sell subscription software services. Chief Executive Mary Barra extended that plan in October 2025, telling The Verge's Decoder podcast that the phase-out would eventually reach gas-powered vehicles too, with the transition beginning on GM's new computing platform and rolling out model by model as vehicles came up for redesign.

The ambition behind the shift was explicitly financial. GM's own securities filings describe the company as a maker of "trucks, crossovers, cars, and automobile parts" that also "provides software-enabled services and subscriptions worldwide," language GM has used in its quarterly reports to frame connected services as a growth business distinct from vehicle sales. Locking customers into GM's own screens was meant to feed that business. Instead, the policy drew sustained criticism from owners and reviewers, and it spawned an aftermarket industry of kits built to restore the mirroring functions GM had removed.

GM had already begun narrowing the policy before this week's announcement. The automaker said earlier this year that the 2027 Cadillac Lyriq would keep both phone-mirroring systems, a carve-out Cadillac attributed to "customer feedback." The Silverado and Sierra redesign extends that retreat to GM's highest-volume vehicles and reframes it as a permanent design choice rather than a one-model exception.

Who is affected, and the response

The change applies only to the redesigned 2027 model-year Silverado and Sierra when they arrive at dealerships later this year; it does not restore CarPlay or Android Auto to GM's current electric vehicles, which remain without the feature, or to gas-powered models that have already lost it. GM has not said when or whether the new interface will extend to other vehicles in its lineup, including the Chevrolet Equinox, Blazer and other EVs built on its Ultifi software platform.

GM product managers described the redesign as an attempt to stop making customers choose between GM's native software and their phones. Motor1 reported that Colin McCormick, GM's product manager for in-vehicle phone projection, framed the split-screen layout as the resolution of that trade-off.

"I think we're landing in a spot where we don't have a customer that has to decide, 'Oh, I'm going to use projection, or, oh, I want to use the native system' ... That's our sweet spot," McCormick said.

Mike Wahlstrom, GM's executive director of software product management, was more direct about the reasoning behind the reversal, telling reporters that customer attachment to the two platforms had outweighed the case for forcing drivers onto GM's own system. GM also restructured how it builds vehicle software, moving its digital-experience work out of the software organization and into its design group, now led by Sebastian Bauer, a former Apple and Google executive, according to 9to5Google, which reviewed the new interface ahead of its public unveiling. Apple and Google were both involved in adapting their platforms to fit inside GM's new layout, the outlet reported.

What happens next

GM has committed to expanding the redesigned interface "across the broader portfolio" of its vehicles over an unspecified period, but it has not published a model-by-model schedule, and the company's public position on electric vehicles remains unchanged for now. Jalopnik reported that the shift has fueled speculation, so far unconfirmed by GM, that the company's EVs could eventually regain phone mirroring as well.

For dealers and buyers, the near-term effect is confined to trucks ordered or purchased once the 2027 Silverado and Sierra go on sale. For GM, the episode marks a rare public retreat from a strategy the company had defended as recently as last October, and it leaves open how the automaker will now describe its software and subscription revenue ambitions to investors, given that the plan rested in part on steering customers away from Apple's and Google's platforms rather than accommodating them.