General Motors is rolling out a new infotainment interface on the 2027 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra, and the headline change is that Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are back. This is a reversal: GM began removing phone projection from its electric vehicles in 2023, with CEO Mary Barra arguing at the time that switching between the native interface and CarPlay was clunky and distracting, and saying the phase-out would continue as new vehicles launched.
The new implementation is not a straight return to the old full-screen takeover. By default the display runs a split view, with phone mirroring on one side and native truck functions — trailering data, off-road information — visible at the same time. GM says that addresses the original complaint directly: rather than forcing drivers to bounce between two whole interfaces, the truck data stays on screen while CarPlay runs. The company also moved the background from blue to black and raised icon contrast for faster legibility, added more detailed 3D graphics for Super Cruise, introduced Android-style notifications and quick actions, and changed call handling so that answering a call no longer throws you out of whatever app was open.
The catch for existing owners is that this is new-vehicle software only. Trucks built before the launch keep the older interface, and GM has not said whether the split-screen CarPlay approach will reach its EVs, where phone projection has been the subject of steady owner complaints since 2023.
Why it matters for tuning: phone projection is a source change, not a signal-path change, and it is worth being clear about which part of the chain it touches. Whether audio arrives over CarPlay, Android Auto, Bluetooth or the native media app, it still passes through the factory head unit's own processing before it reaches the speakers — and on a modern truck that processing is substantial. Expect factory equalisation shaped around the specific cab, level-dependent loudness compensation, speed-sensitive volume, and often a fairly aggressive high-pass on the door speakers with the bottom end routed elsewhere. If you are tapping the factory signal to feed an aftermarket DSP, that curve is what you inherit, and it is why a speaker-level sweep out of a modern OEM system usually looks nothing like flat. Measure the factory output first, with all the enhancement modes you can find switched off, then decide what your DSP has to undo before you start adding what you want. Also check whether the source itself changes anything: a lossy Bluetooth stream and a CarPlay connection can behave differently at the top end, so run your reference sweeps from one fixed source and keep it consistent between the before and after.
The wider point for anyone doing factory integration work is that infotainment direction is not settled. GM spent three years moving away from phone projection and has now built a truck interface around accommodating it, which is a reminder that the integration hardware you buy today is tracking a moving target. The new interface arrives on 2027 Silverado and Sierra models built after launch.
