All the New Features for the Tesla App in Apple iOS 18

Not a Tesla App

Apple has released its latest software update for iPhone, iPad, and MacOS, along with other systems. While the update includes many new features, such as RCS text message support, a customizable Control Center and many other features, we’ll focus on the ones that apply to Tesla and the Tesla app.

Control Center

With iOS and iPadOS 18, Apple overhauled Control Center. Visually, it remains very similar to its previous incarnation, except that you can now customize it in several ways. First, you can resize each button. Most icons can be customized so that they take up a single square, two spots or four. While Tesla doesn’t support any native actions for Control Center yet, you can create your own shortcut using Apple’s Shortcuts app and add it to Control Center (see below). The action can preheat/precool the cabin, start charging, unlock the vehicle or many others. To set a custom action, simply swipe down to Control Center, tap the plus (+) icon on the top-left corner, and choose Add a Control at the bottom.

Not a Tesla App

Customize Tesla App Icon

iOS 18 also adds support for dark icons and customizable tint options. That means that you now have a degree of control over what the Tesla app icon looks like. To use dark icons while Dark Mode is active on the phone, tap and hold on any app icon and choose Edit Home Screen. When the icons start jiggling, tap the Edit button on the top left and choose Customize.

At the bottom of the screen, you’ll now be able to choose between various methods of customizing your app icons. You can pick from two app icon sizes, choose light/dark app icons and choose a color for tinting all icons.

The Tesla dark icon is a red T on a black background, while the light icon remains the same white T on a red background. The Tinted option allows you to tint all of your app icons in your preferred shade.

Lock Screen Buttons

Not a Tesla App

The iPhone has had two lock screen icons for several years, which include shortcuts to the flashlight and camera apps. However, with this update, you can now swap out those icons for other apps or custom actions. Since the Tesla app doesn’t support any actions yet, you’ll need to create a shortcut first, then you can apply it here or to the Control Center. Creating a shortcut for cabin preconditioning is one of the most useful options, as it gives you one-touch access to cooling your vehicle.

To set up custom lock screen buttons you’ll want to lock your phone first. then tap on your wallpaper in any blank area. Choose customize and then choose the lock screen. You’ll then see several options to add widgets or remove the icons from your lock screen. Start by removing one of the icons at the bottom, then tap the + button to add a new one. This could be the Tesla app, or a specific shortcut. If you want to use a shortcut, you’ll want to choose Shortcut Control Title. Once the menu comes up, you simply pick the shortcut you created.

Locking Tesla to Face ID

With iOS 18, Apple also introduced the ability to lock or hide certain apps. You can lock an app so that it requires Face ID before someone is able to access it. To set it up, just tap and hold on the app icon you’d like to lock and then choose the “Require Face ID” option. Like most things on iOS, if Face ID fails, you can still open the app with your phone’s passcode. If you prefer to hide an app, the process is similar. You’ll want to choose Require Face ID, and then the phone will prompt you whether you want to just require Face ID or if you’d like to hide the app.

If you choose to hide the app, the app icon will be removed from your home screen, and the app will only show up in the Hidden folder in the App Library. To access the App Library, swipe left after you get to the last home screen. To bring up a list of your hidden apps, tap the Hidden folder at the bottom and authenticate with Face ID.

Keep in mind that locking or hiding your app comes with several disadvantages. If you lock your app, then all Tesla notifications won’t be readable without first authenticating with Face ID.

Creating an Apple Shortcut & Using Siri

Not a Tesla App

You can create your own custom action with Apple Shortcuts. They can be extremely simple, like unlocking your vehicle, and require only a couple of minutes to set up.

To create a shortcut that could be utilized in Control Center, on the Lock Screen or as the Action button, open the Apple Shortcuts app.

Once you’re there, tap on the plus (+) sign at the top right corner of the app. On the bottom half of the screen, scroll up until you find the Tesla app and tap it. You’ll then see a list of all supported Tesla functions.

You can tap on any action such as Start under ‘Precondition Vehicle’ or Unlock vehicle. After choosing your preferred option, you’ll need to choose the vehicle it applies to, even if you have a single vehicle on your account. Simply tap the Choose Vehicle text and pick your car.

If you’d like to name the action, you can tap on the name with the down arrow at the top center of the screen and choose rename. After renaming your action, you can simply tap done and exit the app.

You can now run the action by simply saying its name when you bring up Siri, such as “Hey Siri, start car.” You can also take this shortcut and add it to Control Center or the lock screen for quick access.

Action Button

Not a Tesla App

With the new iPhone 16 model, Apple has replaced the mute/vibrate toggle with the Action button for all phone models. The Action button can be used for any action you’d like, but assigning it to a shortcut allows you to perform certain Tesla functions like the ones we mentioned earlier that could be added to Control Center or the lock screen.

Cooling down the cabin can now be a single button push away, and you can even push it without removing your phone from your pocket.

Until Tesla adds native support for actions that could be added to different parts of iOS 18, creating a simple shortcut is your best bet to take advantage of the latest iOS 18 features.

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Tesla Smoking While Supercharging? A Look at What's Actually Happening

Hot_Engineering3140 on Reddit

Winter is here, and temperatures are dropping, so one of the most common Tesla questions is about to resurface.

If you’ve landed here after frantically searching about “smoke” coming from your Tesla while Supercharging, take a deep breath—it’s completely normal.

Tesla Smoking While Charging

If you’re Supercharging in freezing weather—even with preconditioning—you might notice steam rising from your Tesla. But rest assured, your car isn’t smoking.

Your Tesla’s heat pump is hard at work warming both the cabin and battery to keep you comfortable and ensure optimal charging temperatures. Over time, condensation and ice build-up in the heat exchanger coils.

Why Does It Happen?

When you reach a Supercharger with your vehicle, the heat pump is still running hot, but without the cold air from driving to keep the heat exchanger coils cool, the ice and condensation quickly start to evaporate—creating what looks like smoke.

Since this typically happens near the front of the vehicle, where a car would traditionally have an engine, new vehicle owners can be startled by the discovery. However, rest assured that it’s just water vapor and it’s completely normal in cold weather.

In fact, this behavior can be experienced in any EV with a heat pump in cold climates. So, if you saw steam coming out of your vehicle and panicked, don’t worry—you’re not alone.

Now that you know what’s happening, go ahead and Supercharge with confidence.

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Tesla Improves YouTube App With Smoother Playback

Not a Tesla App

Tesla made a lot of improvements in the 2024 Holiday Update, including more than 15 undocumented improvements that were included in the release. One of these was a stealthy performance improvement to the YouTube app.

Several people have mentioned they’ve seen improved performance on YouTube since this year’s Holiday Update - and there’s an interesting reason why.

YouTube Improvements

The improved YouTube performance in Tesla vehicles comes from an unexpected source—Tesla actually rolled back support for YouTube’s newer AV1 video encoding. Instead, vehicles now default to the older VP9 encoding standard.

While AV1 is highly efficient in terms of bandwidth, it requires considerably more processing power to decode and display videos. VP9, on the other hand, is less computationally demanding but uses more bandwidth to achieve the same video quality. This trade-off means smoother playback and better overall performance, even if it comes at the cost of slightly higher data usage.

Intel Inside

The VP9 video codec that the YouTube app is now using is much easier to decode, making it less taxing on the vehicle’s processor. This change is particularly beneficial for Tesla vehicles with Intel processors, which previously struggled to stream video at just 720p. When using AV1, these vehicles often experienced stuttering, sometimes forcing the YouTube app to automatically downgrade playback to 480p.

With this update, Intel-based Teslas should now be able to stream at 1080p smoothly. Streaming at 1440p is also possible, although occasional stutters still occur as the system keeps up with the decoding process.

Intel-based vehicles are the big winners with this change, but this appears to affect AMD Ryzen-based infotainment units as well, providing even smoother playback.

Chromium Web App

Tesla’s Theater apps aren’t native applications; instead, they run as chromeless web apps, leveraging the open-source browser built into Teslas known as Chromium (the open-source version of Chrome). Although this works quite well, there is a severe limitation - Chromium hardware acceleration isn’t supported on Linux, the operating system Tesla uses for their OS.

As a result, Tesla vehicles rely on software decoding instead of hardware decoding, which would otherwise handle video playback far more efficiently. A potential solution could be for Tesla to transition away from Chromium-based web apps in favor of a Mozilla Firefox-based browser, as Firefox does support hardware acceleration on Linux. This switch could also open the door to better streaming performance and the possibility of expanding Tesla’s in-car entertainment options.

However, Tesla’s choice of Chromium likely stems from Digital Rights Management (DRM) requirements for streaming services like Disney+ and Netflix, which rely on DRM-enabled playback. Firefox on Linux has had inconsistent support for DRM due to codec availability and variations in operating system versions.

We’re hopeful that Tesla will either adopt Firefox or develop a fully native application to improve video streaming, rather than continuing with the current web-based Tesla Theater. This shift could also pave the way for additional in-car applications built on Tesla’s native Linux environment—perhaps even reviving the long-rumored Tesla App Store.

Regardless, this update is a welcome improvement, particularly for YouTube, which remains one of the most widely used Theater Mode apps due to its accessibility, free content, and mix of short and long-form videos. It remains to be seen whether similar improvements are made for Netflix, Disney+, or other streaming platforms.

If you’ve noticed improved performance in Theater Mode, now you know why.

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