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Control Center is a convenient feature that lets you perform various daily tasks on your iPhone or iPad with just a few swipes. From turning on your flashlight to adjusting your screen brightness, the Control Center has everything right within your reach. Here’s a detailed guide on how to make the most of Control Center on your iOS device.
What is Control Center?
Control Center is a small menu that pops up when you swipe up from the bottom of your iPhone or iPad screen. It provides shortcuts to a range of useful features, such as Wi-Fi controls, the calculator, and the timer, all in one place.
How to Use Control Center
You can easily access the Control Center from any screen on your iOS device, even the lock screen. Simply swipe your finger up from slightly below the bottom of your screen, and the menu will appear. To close it, swipe down on the screen or press the space button.
Quick Operation
Apple has arranged the Control Center menu into several different sections, with the top row of icons providing quick on/off controls for various settings, including airplane mode, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Do Not Disturb, Mute, and Portrait Orientation Lock. Below this (or on the right side, for iPads) is the brightness slider, which can be used to brighten or darken your screen.
AirPlay and AirDrop
In the next section, you can find the Airplay Mirroring switch, which allows you to stream music, videos, or photos directly from your iOS device to an Apple TV or any other Airplay-compatible device. Right next to that is AirDrop, which enables you to share various files, documents, videos, and pictures with other nearby Apple devices. AirDrop offers three options for sharing, including turning it off completely, receiving files only from contacts, or receiving files from anyone nearby.
Night Shift
The following area is dedicated to Apple’s Night Shift feature, which helps reduce the blue light emitted from iOS devices when you use them at night. Enabling this feature can improve your sleep quality as blue light can hinder your sleep. You can adjust the settings of Night Shift in your device’s “Display & Brightness” settings. You can also override the global settings and enable Night Shift quickly from Control Center.
Tools
The bottom row of icons is where you can activate different tools, like the flashlight, timer/stopwatch, calculator, and camera. If you have an iPhone 6S or higher, you can use the 3D Touch feature to access more function options by pressing and holding each icon.
Audio
Swiping left on the Control Center shows you the media control page, which displays the artwork of songs or other media currently playing on your device. You can play, pause, and adjust the volume of the media and you can also select the device on which the media should be played.
HomeKit
If you have HomeKit-compatible devices in your area, you can swipe left once more to open the HomeKit panel, where you can control your home’s smart devices like a thermostat or your lighting system.
Though Control Center received some major changes with the release of iOS 11, this guide is applicable even for the more recent versions of iOS. Control Center is a helpful shortcut to access many useful features quickly and easily.
FAQs:
1. How do I arrange the Control Center icons on my iPhone?
You can customize your Control Center icons by going to “Settings” and selecting “Control Center.” Here, you can add or remove options from the Control Center and change the order they appear in.
2. How can I access the Control Center on my iPad?
On an iPad, you can access the Control Center by swiping up from the bottom of your screen, just like on an iPhone. This will bring up the Control Center menu, which can be customized in the same way as for an iPhone.