This little-known app lets you display song lyrics on Apple CarPlay

You can host your own episode of Carpool Karaoke with the Dynamic Lyrics widget.

Yoni Yardeni for Engadget

Few things are more irritating than driving around with people who sing songs without knowing the lyrics. Thanks to Apple CarPlay's that never has to be the case on long road trips or short errand runs. The best part? James Corden doesn't have to be along for the ride; all you need is an up-to-date iPhone, some passengers, and, most importantly, the little-known Dynamic Lyrics app. 

As one of many third-party apps that are compatible with CarPlay, this one displays time-synced lyrics on your infotainment system after you connect your preferred streaming service, making it seamless for Apple Music or Spotify users.

That said, like with any CarPlay feature, we'd never recommend taking your eyes off the road to enjoy it, but it's a great choice for keeping passengers entertained for hours on end. So if you want to celebrate The Blueprint's 25th anniversary while riding in the HOV lane, you can get the whole car to rap along to any track. Or, you can enjoy translated lyrics when listening to songs in other languages, which comes in handy for singing along to tracks you love but don't fully understand.

However, there is a catch: it costs $9.99 to enable this feature permanently. So before downloading it, make sure you're willing to pay the one-time price when you open the app, and that your device is updated to iOS 26 so you can enable it on CarPlay.

How to add the Dynamic Lyrics widget

Yoni Yardeni/Engadget

Once you confirm your phone is updated, start by downloading the Dynamic Lyrics app in the App Store. When you open up the app, it'll prompt you to connect your streaming service of choice; whether Apple Music or Spotify, simply allow access to get started.

While the process is a breeze for Apple Music and Spotify users, the latter will have to authorize the app using either a Default or Custom method. While Default authorization only takes a tap, you'll likely need to re-authorize time and time again; on the other hand, Custom authorization will take a couple of extra minutes to set up and requires a Spotify Client ID more time to set up, but the Dynamic Lyrics app walks users through it to simplify things.

As shown above, the premium version of Dynamic Lyrics lets you toggle between different themes and customize the CarPlay widget to your liking. Some of the options include different colored backgrounds, including white, black and a gradient that changes based on the album cover, as well as a pair of cover styles: vinyl or picture, the latter displaying the full album cover.

After you've made your picks in the app itself, head over to Settings > General > CarPlay, select your car and tap the Widgets menu under Customize. Once you press Add Widget, you'll see three options; you'll want to select one of the two titled Lyrics widget. Once you add it, these will appear in your widget stack as small squares, but can be enlarged by pressing for a bigger view of the lyrics.