Car Starter gets updated, app buttons and more added to the mix

By George Ponder
last updated

Car Starter is a Windows Phone 8 app that delivers dashboard styled access to key features of your Windows Phone. It reduces the amount of navigation needed to move around your phone while traveling, making it a little safer to access your phone.

Car Starter was update to version 1.2 and adds a few new features and fine tunes others.

For starters you now have three programmable app buttons that sit at the top of the screen to give you quick and easy access to a collection of Windows Phone apps.

Additional changes delivered with the version 1.2 update include:

  • Shuffle button added to the music playback controls
  • Added voice commands for playing music, playing Nokia Music Mix and playing a genre or playlist
  • Help button added for voice command controls
  • Ability to re-order and delete contacts in portrait view

With regards to Car Starter's app buttons, they are currently limited to a handful of apps such as Facebook, Nokia Music, Spotify, Viber and WhatsApp. Hopefully, this list will grow as more apps are suggested to the developer.  It would be nice to see apps such as Yelp!, Rad Now, Trapster and other travel oriented apps eventually added to the list.

Speaking of which, you also have integration with carstarter.uservoice.com which is an easy way to deliver feedback, update ideas and other suggestions to the developer.

All in all, the update improves upon the previous version of Car Starter and it remains a nice option if you're looking for a Windows Phone 8 dashboard app.

Car Starter is a free app with an NFC feature that will cost you $.99 via an in-app purchase. You can find Car Starter here in the (opens in new tab) Windows Phone Store.

George Ponder
George Ponder

George is the Reviews Editor at Windows Central, concentrating on Windows 10 PC and Mobile apps. He's been a supporter of the platform since the days of Windows CE and uses his current Windows 10 Mobile phone daily to keep up with life and enjoy a game during down time.

17 Comments
  • $99!?
  • it's free here
  • Just a typo. The NFC feature is 0.99$
  • It's one hell of a NFC feature! Thanks for pointing it out and it has been corrected.
  • Maybe he meant $0.99??
  • This or stock car dash Nokia app?
  • The most notable feature of the CR-200 Nokia app is that it lets you associate a button with any app you have installed. Which would be great if it worked, but for some reason it seems to forget which app you saved each time you relaunch the app.
    I'd like to think my app is more feature-rich, especially with the voice command music player.
  • Hi TAR,
    You're saying "my app" as in "I created the app"? Well I must say that I really dig it. It's the one app I use now for when driving. Keep up the good job. Regards
  • Thanks! Yes I'm the developer. Guess I should change my username to something that would make that more apparent. :)
  • There should be a legitimate car-starting app for newer vehicles. That'd so awesome (until a little kid does it by accident and runs a car out of gas).
  • They exist. There is one for Volvo in the Windows Phone store.
  • No phone while driving
  • So... Why is this app called car starter if it doesn't actually start your car?
  • I tried 3 similar apps and this is the least bad one. I wish they'd let me get rid of one of the destination shortcuts and replace it with something else.
  • Couldn't get voice commands to work. Deleted.
  • Sorry to hear the voice commands didn't work for you. Did you try pressing the help button? It will speak out some example commands that you can used based on the music found in your library.
  • To many errors