How easy is it to use Google Maps for navigation with an iPhone on the ‘23 Prius?

If you use carplay it's easy enough. Register the phone with carplay, open up Google maps on the car's touchscreen. To get out of carplay you need to use the Toyota icon, I think that's the biggest stinker.

I recommend connecting the phone via wire though, wireless carplay is... unreliable, at best.

 

Just going to point out that Toyota's nav system now uses Google Maps as its integrated system. The giant negative is that it costs $15/month to enable its complete set of features(the real-time stuff). But if you don't need cloud-based, real-time functions, the standard integrated nav might(I stress, might) be good enough to keep you from needing to use your phone for nav.

 

After doing some digging, I'm going to have to backtrack my thoughts. It's possible there's a basic level of Goggle nav available without a subscription, but I'm a lot less sure of that then I was before the extra digging. It's very possible there might be no nav at all without the subscription. Sorry for adding confusion.

 

I’ve had my Prius for a few days now and like the wireless connection with my iphone14 and CarPlay. Google maps is easy to use on the screen. My saved locations show up on the screen and you can also do searches and pick routes just like on your phone.

 

Something I’ve noticed on this aspect of using an iPhone with CarPlay is subtle differences in the front end display.

Google maps on CarPlay works well, no issues and works without much hassle.

But the Easter egg is with Apple Maps and Toyota native maps (this is non CarPlay maps). The lane changes when using Apple Maps and Toyota Maps shows up on the digital front display as well (the one with Speedometer). I noticed these two are the only ones that does this bonus feature. Maybe it does with google maps and android, but don’t have one to test it.