Most in-car infotainment interfaces are...not great. Just trying to hang up a call without hitting the wrong button can be an exercise in hair-pulling frustration. But your phone's interface displayed on the dashboard screen? Now that's nice. If you’re like me, when you finally got a vehicle that supported Apple CarPlay (for iPhones) or Android Auto, you fell in love with it.

The downside is that in most vehicles, to use CarPlay and Android Auto, you have to plug your phone in every time. Digging it out of a pocket or purse can be cumbersome, and it also means more wear and tear on the power port. If you’re limping along with an older iPhone, you probably know the Lightning port is not up to that much stress. Mine was at a point where the phone connecting was hit or miss, no matter how often I changed cables.

The Rise of Wireless CarPlay and Android Auto Adapters

Then I found out about wireless CarPlay dongles. They plug into your car's smart USB-A or USB-C port. Normally, the smartphone plugs into it to display on the screen. The wireless dongle is a go-between; it connects your smartphone to the dashboard via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. So you can get in the car and start rolling—no need to plug in.

Many wireless adapters look suspiciously similar, so there’s probably only a handful of actual product developers licensing the designs. Search Amazon and you’ll find a plethora of “brand names” you’ve never heard of before, such as Drimfly, Zeteade, Teeran, Vrriis, Binize, and Loadkey. You may have seen ads on TikTok or Instagram for some, such as CarlinKit and Pairr. Quite a few adapter brands don’t even sell via Amazon and stick to direct sales; they typically ship from overseas and take days, if not weeks, to reach you.

We have tested several, and the experience with each was similar. What they all share is that once you have your phone connected, you’ll appreciate the ease of wireless CarPlay or Android Auto. But you'll also notice a slight lag from hitting a button on the screen to when the phone responds (for example, when pausing a song) compared with using the direct wired connection.

Warnings About Wireless Dongles

Usually you can just plug an adapter like this into the car's USB-A smart port via the included cable and you're ready to get started.

However, you'll find that to get it to connect, typically, your phone can't be connected to other Bluetooth devices, not even the hands-free option for your car’s infotainment system. It also can't be connected to another Wi-Fi network, which is difficult if you've got a strong signal from the house that reaches your driveway.

After that, you'll usually see the device's interface appear on-screen on your dash. You click Search, go to the phone, and find the matching name in Bluetooth to pair it; it’ll also set up the requisite Wi-Fi connection. You can also change the name of the Bluetooth connection and the Wi-Fi SSID.

But don't bother. Once you have your adapter working, don’t mess with the settings. Many of these products originate directly from overseas, and the menus below the surface aren't always updated. Making changes can mess up settings that are almost impossible to restore.

An issue that’s true of all these dongles is the delay time. It takes a little longer to start wirelessly, and there’s a noticeable lag when you push a button on the dash to when the phone actually reacts. That’s simply how it is with these things. How well you tolerate that depends on how frustrating you find wired CarPlay/Android Auto.

The first CarPlay adapter I tried, the Cplay2Air, is straightforward: You plug the Cplay2Air directly into the car’s USB-A smart port via the integrated cable. The Cplay2Air works with the iPhone 6 and up, and you can plug it into a USB-C port if you buy a converter cable.

Once the Cplay2Air is plugged in, try to access CarPlay and the device's interface appears on-screen. You can change the name of the Bluetooth connection and the Wi-Fi SSID, but I didn't bother—the confirmation dialog boxes are in Chinese.

From the Cplay2Air interface on the dash, you can choose between different iPhones if multiple people have them and are all vying for control. Then the screen switches over to CarPlay. Your iPhone treats this as a new instance of CarPlay, so if you have the icons pre-arranged, you’ll have to arrange them again in Settings > General > CarPlay.

After that, whenever I entered the car, Cplay2Air connected to my iPhone and started CarPlay without a problem. The delay issue above was certainly present, but there was no added lag during phone calls in my tests, though.