What happens when you press and hold is more predictable. If you press and hold a button that has more options (or if you press and hold a \u201ccard,\u201d which is what Apple calls the collection of buttons for networking and audio controls), another screen opens, showing controls for those settings. Some of those screens provide even more options\u2014press and hold the networking card to expand it from four buttons to six, and then press and hold the Wi-Fi, AirDrop, or Bluetooth button to switch Wi-Fi networks, choose who can send you files via AirDrop, or connect to Bluetooth devices.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/macworks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/want-to-push-some-buttons-make-the-most-of-control-center-in-ios-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Customizing the Controls<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/macworks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/want-to-push-some-buttons-make-the-most-of-control-center-in-ios-2.jpg\")
To change which buttons are available in Control Center, go to Settings > Control Center > Customize Controls. The Customize screen is split into two sections: Include lists controls that are showing in Control Center, and More Controls contains inactive controls you can add.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s how to switch things up:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Add a button:<\/b> Tap its green plus button. It moves to the Include list. You can add as many buttons as you like. If you add so many that they don\u2019t fit on the screen, you\u2019ll have to swipe in Control Center to see the extras.<\/li>\n
- Remove a button:<\/b> Tap its red minus button, and tap Remove. The button moves to More Controls.<\/li>\n
- Arrange buttons:<\/b> For any button in the Include list, drag the grab handle on the right side up or down.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Pay attention to which buttons you find yourself actually using in Control Center and how often you use them. Then you can adjust which ones appear and where they\u2019re located, so you can find them quickly whenever you open Control Center.<\/p>\n
Interesting Buttons<\/h3>\n
Apple has a full list of all the controls in Control Center<\/a>, but here are a few of our favorite optional buttons, and what to expect from them:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Apple TV:<\/b> This button opens an Apple TV remote control that can replace your Siri Remote. It\u2019s especially useful when you need to type a search string or password into the Apple TV.<\/li>\n
- Clock Options:<\/b> Need to keep track of the time? Three buttons\u2014Alarm, Timer, and Stopwatch\u2014each open their corresponding screen in the Clock app so you can complete a timing task quickly. Timer is the most useful because it has a press-and-hold option that lets you start a timer without switching to the Clock app.<\/li>\n
- Magnifier:<\/b> Tapping the Magnifier button takes you to a camera-like app designed to zoom in on something in the physical world so you can see it better. It\u2019s helpful for seeing tiny type, such as serial numbers on electronic devices.<\/li>\n
- Notes:<\/b> Tap to start a new note in the Notes app. Or press and hold to bring up a menu of choices for starting a new note with a checklist, a photo, or a scanned document.<\/li>\n
- Screen Recording:<\/b> Want to make a movie of something you see on your iPhone or iPad\u2019s screen? Tap the Screen Recording button to start a recording, then tap the red button in the upper-left corner of the screen to stop.<\/li>\n
- Text Size:<\/b> This button brings up a slider for adjusting the size of the system font\u2014this is the text in places like the Messages and Settings apps.<\/li>\n
- Voice Memos:<\/b> This button opens the Voice Memos app when you tap it, but if you press and hold instead, you can start a new recording immediately or access recent recordings. If your yoga instructor doesn\u2019t mind, recording a class is a handy way to recap workout instructions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/macworks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/want-to-push-some-buttons-make-the-most-of-control-center-in-ios-3.jpg\")
<\/p>\nOnly Apple can provide new controls for Control Center right now, so you won\u2019t find any options for working with independent apps. But who knows\u2014as with Siri, perhaps Apple will open Control Center up to developers in the future too.<\/p>\n
(Featured image by Adi Goldstein<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Starting back in iOS 11, Apple made Control Center significantly more useful by letting you customize it more to your liking by adding and rearranging buttons. You can even remove a few of the default buttons if they\u2019re just taking up space. Opening and Closing Control Center To open Control Center in iOS 11 and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[880,8],"tags":[3109],"class_list":["post-7503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ipad","category-iphone","tag-applesupportct"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7503"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.macworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7514,"href":"https:\/\/www.macworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7503\/revisions\/7514"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macworks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
- Clock Options:<\/b> Need to keep track of the time? Three buttons\u2014Alarm, Timer, and Stopwatch\u2014each open their corresponding screen in the Clock app so you can complete a timing task quickly. Timer is the most useful because it has a press-and-hold option that lets you start a timer without switching to the Clock app.<\/li>\n
- Remove a button:<\/b> Tap its red minus button, and tap Remove. The button moves to More Controls.<\/li>\n