How to See Your Speed While Using Navigation on iPhone

An iPhone shows one full-screen app at a time, so a speedometer app normally disappears the moment you open Google Maps, Apple Maps or a music player. You can keep your speed in view anyway with a floating Picture in Picture window, a Live Activity on the Lock Screen or in the Dynamic Island, or both, while trip recording carries on in the background. All of it has to be arranged before you set off, with the phone in a mount and left alone once the car is moving.

Three ways to keep your speed visible

GPS Speedometer offers three tools that work alongside other apps. They do different jobs, and many drivers use more than one.

Option	Where the speed appears	What it is good for
Picture-in-Picture widget	A small floating window over any app	Seeing a large, steady number next to the map
Live Activity & Dynamic Island	The Lock Screen, and the top of the screen on models with a Dynamic Island	A compact readout that takes up almost no space
Background recording	Not on screen; it logs the trip	Keeping distance, speeds and the route for later

The Picture-in-Picture widget and trip recording are part of Premium. The free version gives you the live speed readout with the Digital Clean gauge inside the app itself.

Picture in Picture on iPhone, and the speedometer widget

What Picture in Picture is

Picture in Picture is an iOS feature that lets an app keep showing a small window after you leave it. It was built for video, so you could keep watching while replying to a message, and some apps use the same window for other live content. The window floats above whatever app is in front, and you can drag it to any corner, pinch to resize it, or slide it off the edge of the screen to hide it for a while.

It is available on iPhones running iOS 14 or later. The system-wide switch that lets apps start it on their own is under Settings › General › Picture in Picture, where "Start PiP Automatically" can be turned on or off. Wording and behaviour can vary a little between iOS versions.

Setting up the widget before you drive

In GPS Speedometer, the Picture-in-Picture widget puts your current speed in that floating window, so it stays visible on top of a navigation or music app.

1. While parked, open GPS Speedometer and wait until the gauge shows a GPS speed.
2. Choose your units, km/h, mph or knots, so the floating number means what you expect.
3. Start the Picture-in-Picture widget, then switch to your navigation app and set your destination.
4. Drag the window to a corner where it does not cover the next turn, the route line or the arrival time.
5. Pinch it to a size you can read at a glance from your normal seating position.

If the window covers something important later in the trip, leave it. Moving it is a job for a passenger or for the next safe stop.

Live Activities and the Dynamic Island

A Live Activity is a small, live-updating panel that an app can place on the Lock Screen for something happening right now, such as a delivery, a sports score or a journey. On iPhone models with a Dynamic Island, the black cut-out around the front camera, the same activity also appears there in a compact form while you use other apps. Live Activities arrived with iOS 16.1, and the Dynamic Island exists only on certain newer models, so what you see depends on your iPhone and its iOS version.

GPS Speedometer can show your speed as a Live Activity. On a phone with a Dynamic Island, that means a small speed readout sits at the top of the screen while the map fills the rest. On other models, you see it on the Lock Screen.

A few practical points:

• Space is shared. If your navigation app also runs a Live Activity, iOS decides how to fit both. One of them may shrink to a small icon.
• It can be switched off. Live Activities for an app can be allowed or blocked in that app's page in Settings. If the readout never appears, check there first.
• Less to look at. The compact view is small. It suits a quick check of the number, not reading detail, which is the right habit anyway.

Recording the trip in the background

Seeing your speed and logging it are separate things. Trip recording in GPS Speedometer keeps running while the app is in the background, so you can follow directions or play music and still end up with a full record of the journey.

Start recording before you open the other app. When you stop, the trip holds the distance, maximum and average speed, drive time, a speed-over-time chart and the route on a map, all of which you can look through once you are parked.

One thing ends a recording early: closing the app completely, for example by swiping it away in the App Switcher. Switching to another app is fine. Swiping GPS Speedometer away is not. Recording and trip history are Premium features.

The speedometer and recording work without a data connection, because GPS does not need one. Your navigation app may need data for maps and traffic, and the automatic speed limits in GPS Speedometer look the limit up online.

Setting up the dashboard before you leave

The phone should be fully configured and mounted before the car moves. In most places handling a phone while driving is restricted or illegal, and even where it is not, it is the risk all of this is meant to avoid.

1. Mount first. Use a secure mount that keeps the phone out of your line of sight to the road and clear of any airbag panel.
2. Plug in. GPS, a bright screen and navigation together use a lot of battery. A charging cable keeps the phone going on longer drives.
3. Open GPS Speedometer and let it lock on to your speed.
4. Start recording if you want a log of the trip.
5. Start the Picture-in-Picture widget or check that the Live Activity is showing, depending on what you use.
6. Open navigation and music, set the destination and the playlist.
7. Check the layout from your seat. If the floating window, the map or the Dynamic Island readout is hard to see, fix it now.

Once you are moving, the phone is for glancing at, not touching. If something needs changing, a passenger can do it, or you can pull over somewhere safe.

When the speed readout goes missing

Most problems have a simple cause, and every fix here is for a parked car.

• The floating window does not appear. Make sure Picture in Picture is allowed under Settings › General › Picture in Picture, and that your iPhone runs a version of iOS that supports it.
• The window vanished during the drive. It may have been slid off the edge of the screen. A small tab remains at the side; drag it back in when you are stopped.
• No Live Activity or Dynamic Island readout. Check that Live Activities are allowed for GPS Speedometer in Settings, and remember that the Dynamic Island exists only on some models.
• The speed stops updating. The GPS signal may be weak in tunnels, underground car parks or between tall buildings. It recovers once the phone has a clearer view of the sky.
• The trip is shorter than expected. The app was probably closed fully at some point, which stops the recording.

FAQ

Can I see my speed while using Google Maps on iPhone?

Yes. The Picture-in-Picture widget in GPS Speedometer floats your speed over Google Maps or any other app, and the Live Activity can show it on the Lock Screen and, on supported models, in the Dynamic Island. Set it all up before you start driving.

Is the Picture-in-Picture widget free?

No. The Picture-in-Picture widget is one of the Premium features, along with HUD mode, trip recording and history, and the speed-limit alerts. The live speed readout with the Digital Clean gauge is free.

Why doesn't my iPhone show the speed in the Dynamic Island?

The Dynamic Island exists only on certain iPhone models, and Live Activities need a recent version of iOS. On other phones the readout appears on the Lock Screen, and Live Activities must be allowed for the app in Settings.

Does GPS Speedometer keep recording if I switch to another app?

Yes. Recording continues while the app is in the background, so you can use navigation or music at the same time. Closing the app fully stops the recording.