How to Customize and Use Control Center on iPhone

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How to Customize Control Center on iPhone

Another one of the frustrations with Apple’s decision to overhaul the Control Center with iOS 10 was that iPhone users still couldn’t customize which options appeared. Thankfully, that also changed with the release of iOS 11 and is still available with the latest version of iOS on the most recently-released iPhone.

1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
2. Scroll down and tap Control Center.

Right off the bat, you’ll see two options at the top of the Control Center page within the Settings app. The first of which allows you to toggle the ability to access Control Center when an app is open, and not just from the Home Screen or Lock Screen. The second toggle is to show Home controls within Control Center, which is convenient if you want quick and easy access to smart home accessories that have been added to the Apple Home app.

Scrolling further down, and this is where the real fun begins. There are two different sections named Included Controls and More Controls. While Apple has been expanding its “walled garden” a bit, those changes have yet to come to the Control Center. So everything you see in either section has been implemented by Apple and third-party app developers don’t have access.

When it comes to customizing, the steps are pretty easy. First, you’ll want to locate the control(s) that you want to appear in Control Center from within the More Controls section. Then, tap the + button found to the left, and it will be moved to the Included Controls section.

Go ahead and repeat those steps until you’ve added all of the controls that you want to appear within the Control Center. The best practice would be to add in your top 4 to 5 favorite controls into your control center so that it makes it more convenient and looks good.

Once you’ve finished adding all of the different controls, then you can organize them. Doing so will rearrange them in Control Center, with the options at the top of the list in the Settings app, appearing closest to the top when you open Control Center. So if you have an iPhone 14 Pro Max, you might want to move your most-used controls to the bottom, making them easier to access with one hand. In order to do so, just touch and hold, then drag the three horizontal lines to the left of the name up or down based on your preference.

These are all pretty self-explanatory, as you can quickly toggle any of the connectivity buttons on or off just by tapping the appropriate icon. But there’s even more functionality built-in, as for example, you can long-press the Bluetooth icon to connect to a different set of headphones, or access the Bluetooth Settings.

This also applies to the other areas within Control Center. For example, if you have AirPods connected to your iPhone, long-press on the volume slider to toggle between Active Noise Cancellation or Transparency Mode. We recommend playing around with the different options in order to familiarize yourself with what’s available and what’s possible with a long press.