# Control Center (Apple)

Control Center (or Control Centre in British English, Australian English, and Canadian English) is a feature of Apple Inc.'s iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and visionOS operating systems. It was introduced as part of iOS 7, released on September 18, 2013. In iOS 7, it replaces the control pages found in previous versions. It gives iOS and iPadOS devices direct access to important settings for the device by swiping down from the top right corner on the iPhone X and newer, and on all iPad models starting with iOS 12 or iPadOS, with previous models using a swipe from the bottom of the screen. It is similar to the SBSettings tweak for iOS jailbreaking. Control Center was also added to Macs in macOS 11 Big Sur, released on November 12, 2020.

## Usage
### iOS and iPadOS

Control Center gives iOS and iPadOS users quick access to commonly used controls and apps. By swiping up from any screen–including the Lock screen (if the control center is set to be accessed from the lock screen)–users can do such things as switch on Airplane mode, turn Wi-Fi on or off, adjust the display brightness, text size, and other similar basic functions of the device.
Since iOS 7, it has also included an integrated flashlight function to operate the reverse camera's flash LED as a flashlight. The flashlight feature is only available on iPhone and iPod Touch, and iPad Pro. Beginning with iOS 9.3, a Night Shift toggle became available through the Control Center on all iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad models that have an Apple A7 chip or later.
Other functions are offered, such as the ability to turn Bluetooth and Do Not Disturb on or off; lock the screen's orientation; play, pause, or skip a song, see what is playing; connect to AirPlay-enabled devices; and quickly access the clock, calculator, and camera apps. Users also have access to AirDrop, previously only available on Macs and newly added to iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch models using the Lightning connector in iOS 7, as a method of transferring files between Apple devices.

### macOS

Introduced with macOS 11 Big Sur in 2020, Control Center on macOS gives users quick access to many system-level settings such as WiFi, Bluetooth, and Airdrop, as well as display brightness and system volume. The Control Center icon is on the right side of the menu bar.

### visionOS

Apple's spatial computing platform launched with Control Center, providing access to similar settings as iOS, as well as visionOS-specific features such as guest user access, Mac virtual display, and travel mode.

## Design
### iOS

In iOS 7, Control Center was introduced. It featured a single-paged slide up panel with a blurred background, which provided a layer of translucency over the content below.
In iOS 8, the black borders around the square toggles were removed, while the circular toggles were made to turn fully white when pressed instead of only their outlines.
In iOS 9.3, a new Night Shift toggle was introduced. It is available on on all iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad models that have an Apple A7 chip or later.
In iOS 10, Control Center was redesigned. The toggles are now mostly colorized, while the night shift toggle is made square and longer. The airplay and Aitdrop toggles have switched locations. Two new pages are also introduced, the first consists of media controls, and the second for controlling HomeKit enabled devices linked in the Home application. On the iPad, it is a single menu with less options, though the toggles are bigger.
Control Center received a redesign in iOS 11, replacing the media and homekit pages with toggles on the main one, as well as allowing users to 3D Touch (or long press on devices without 3D Touch) most of the toggles for additional options, and vertical sliders allow users to adjust volume and brightness. The toggles themselves either appear on small black backgrounds or no longer appear as part of a background at all, with the actual home screen itself being blurred instead. The menu is now visible in the app switcher on iPads. Unlike prior versions, control Center is customizable via the Settings app, and allows for a wider range of settings features to be shown, including cellular service, Low Power Mode, and a shortcut to the Notes app.
In iOS 11.2, a new visual effect was added for turning off the Wi-fi and Bluetooth toggles, instead of graying out, they white out. A notification was also added when they are pressed for the first time, explaining their functionality.
In iOS 12, a update was made to the Do Not Disturb toggle, allowing 3D Touching or long pressing the icon to access a menu of preset durations of a Do Not Disturb session. It was removed from the app switcher on iPad, and was also give a redesigned status bar and iPhone X-style gestures across all iPad models.
In iOS 13 and iPadOS 13, a new dark mode toggle was added.
In iOS 14 and iPadOS 14, Control Center has a few changes. It gained a sleep tracking toggle, a sound recognition toggle, a NFC tag toggle, and a Shazam toggle. The Magnifier toggle now redirects to the equivalent app. The media control toggle has been redesigned slightly. New toggles for Homekit have been introduced. New icons are added for when apps that have recently accessed the camera, the microphone or the phones location.
In iOS 15 and iPadOS 15, Control Center had the dedicated do not disturb toggle replaced with a new Focus toggle, witch can be held own to select different options. It also receives a new Keyboard Brightness toggle.
In iOS 16 and iPadOS 16, Control Center was given a redesigned battery icon, alnigside the addition of a toggle for quick notes and the Shazam toggle having its history feature merged with the Shazam application.
In iOS 16.2, the Everyone option of the airplay toggle was changed to switch to Contacts Only after 10 minutes.
In iOS 17 and iPadOS 17, the ability to turn on Silence Notifications from the do not disturb menu in the Focus toggle was added.
In iOS 18 and iPadOS 18, a complete redesign was introduced. The new Control Center features new design featuring more circular buttons and controls, and has multiple horizontal pages of different classes of controls, separating controls for connectivity, media, home, a user's favorite controls, and even an option to create new groups or pages personalized by the user. It also allows editing the size of each control (With exceptions being the volume and brightness sliders, among others) using a "wiggle mode" similar to editing the iPhone and iPad Home Screen. There is also a small "+" button in the top left that allows for opening the controls gallery and adding more controls, including 3rd-party controls for specific apps.
In iOS 18.1, the Wi-fi toggle was redesigned, while a new toggle for VPN was introduced.

### visionOS

In visionOS 1, the Control Center is accessed by looking up and selecting the Control Center icon (a downward-facing chevron) that appears at the top of the users' view. in visionOS 2, access to Control Center has been replaced with a new hand gesture.

## Reception

Control Center has received generally positive reviews. In contrast for the user having to access the Settings application to change most preferences, Darrell Etherington of TechCrunch thought that "separating [Control Center] from that function and making it accessible throughout the iOS user interface via a simple swipe up from bottom is a really big improvement."
The iOS 11 update was criticized for changing the way the buttons for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth work; more specifically, the toggles would disconnect devices from Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, while leaving the radios on. The Electronic Frontier Foundation stated that this change not only hurt battery life, but was also bad for security, describing the buttons as turning Wi-Fi and Bluetooth "off-ish" (greyed out, but not crossed out, as it would appear if switched off directly from the Settings app), as well as further criticizing the connections resuming at 5:00 am every day.