Find & Use the Control Center on iPhone & iPad

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Access important settings in iOS with the Control Center

Written by Megaera Lorenz, PhD

Last Updated: January 26, 2025 Fact Checked

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Using the Control Center

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Customizing the Control Center

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Wondering how to access that nifty control panel thing with icons on your iPhone or iPad—and what exactly you can do with it? We’re here to help! The Control Center gives you easy access to many of the apps, settings, and features you use most often on your Apple device, such as your screen brightness controls, connectivity settings, camera, and more. We’ll teach you how to open it, what it can do, and how to customize the icons.

iPhone and iPad Control Center: The Basics

On modern iPhones and iPads, you can open the Control Center by swiping down from the top right corner of the screen. Tap a control to enable or disable it, or press and hold to see more options. Tap and hold any part of the Control Center outside of the controls to see customization options.

Section 1 of 2:

Using the Control Center

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Swipe down from the top right to open the Control Center. On current iPhone and iPad models, swiping down from the top right side of the screen will open your Control Center. To close the Control Center, swipe up the bottom center of your screen.^{[1]
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- If you have an iPhone with a Home button, swipe up from the bottom of your screen to open the Control Center. Press the Home button to close it.
- On iPads, you can also tap the screen outside the Control Center to close it.
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Keep swiping to see more controls. With iOS 18 and later, the Control Center is divided into several groupings of controls. Swipe up or down or tap the icons to the right of the Control Center to move through the different groups. For instance, tap the musical notes symbol to open your iPhone or iPad’s music player, or the symbol that looks like a cell tower with lines radiating from it to see data and connectivity controls.
- Most of the controls in the secondary groupings are also in the main group (with the heart symbol).
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Press and hold a control for additional options. For example, pressing and holding any icon in the connectivity group at the top left will expand that group of controls so you can access more options.
- Some items may have a ••• button you can tap to display even more settings.
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Manage your data and connectivity from the top left control group. At the top left corner of the main group of controls, you’ll see several icons relating to your connectivity and network status. You can also access an expanded version of these controls by swiping down to the last page of controls in the Control Center. Most of these buttons are blue or green when enabled and grey when disabled.
- Tap the airplane icon to enter or exit Airplane Mode. When Airplane Mode is active, this icon will turn orange.
- Tap the icon that looks like a series of concentric circles with a wedge missing at the bottom to enable or disable AirDrop.
- Use the icon of a series of ascending bars to turn your cellular data on or off.
- Tap the
  Bluetooth icon to enable or disable Bluetooth.
- Tap the button that resembles chain links to turn your personal hotspot on or off.
- Enable your VPN with the globe button.
- Long-press any of these buttons to expand the control group, which will give you additional options. For instance, in the expanded controls, you can tap the network name in the Wi-Fi square to see other available networks.
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Easily control your music with the music player group. The square at the top right of the Control Center displays whatever you are currently playing in the Music app. Tap the Play or Pause icon to quickly turn your music on or off, or skip forward and back in the tracks with the Skip icons. You can also tap the AirPlay icon to share your music to a nearby device.
- For a larger version of this control group with more options (such as volume control), you can also swipe up in the Control Center or tap the musical notes icon on the right side.
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Tap the lock-and-arrow button to turn Screen Lock on or off. This button is directly below the connectivity and network controls. It will turn white and pink when it's on.
- When this control is activated, your screen will stay in portrait (vertical) orientation even if you rotate your screen. When it’s off, your screen will rotate to match the orientation of your phone.
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Enable Screen Mirroring with the overlapping rectangles icon. By default in iOS 18 and later, this button is next to the Screen Lock button. This control allows you to project your iPhone’s screen to an AirPlay-compatible device like a Smart TV or Mac.
- When you tap the Screen Mirroring button, a menu will expand, showing nearby compatible devices. Select one of them to start sharing your iPhone’s screen.
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Tap the moon icon to turn Do Not Disturb mode. Tapping the moon icon automatically enables Do Not Disturb, while tapping the area next to it (with the text “Focus”) will open a menu of other Focus modes, such as “Driving,” “Work,” and “Personal.”
- You will no longer receive call or message notifications when Do Not Disturb is on.
- Expand the Focus controls and tap ••• next to “Do Not Disturb” to set a specific time limit on this focus mode.
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Swipe the sliding bar with the sun icon to adjust brightness. The brightness bar is on the right-hand side of the Control Center. You can hold down anywhere on the bar and drag it up and down adjust your screen's brightness here.
- Tap and hold to access additional screen brightness controls, such as Dark Mode, Night Shift, and True Tone.
You can find it next to the brightness bar on the right-hand side. Just tap and drag anywhere on the bar to change your volume level.
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Tap the flashlight icon to turn the flashlight on or off. This is the same light that provides flash for photos. By default, you can find this button just below the brightness and volume controls.
- Press and hold the button to get a slider bar that allows you to control the intensity of the flashlight.
Look for this icon next to the flashlight. Tap it to launch the Timers section of your Clock app, or tap and hold it to get a slider bar where you can easily set a timer for a certain number of minutes.
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Tap the calculator button to open the calculator. This will directly take you to your stock calculator app.
- Tap and hold this button to copy the result of your last calculation.
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Tap the camera button to open the camera. This will open the camera app and allow you to take photos or videos.
- Press and hold to choose if you want to open the camera in Selfie, Video, Portrait, or Portrait Selfie mode (instead of the default rear view camera mode).
This icon, at the very bottom of your Control Center, looks like a QR code inside a square bracket. Tap it to open your camera with the Code Scanner active so you can scan nearby codes with ease.
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Note the differences in the Control Center on iPad. For the most part, the default controls in Control Center are the same on iPhone and iPad. However, you might notice a few differences on your iPad. For example:
- You can enable Silent Mode by tapping the bell icon at the bottom of the Control Center on iPad.
- The iPad Control Center also has a button that launches the Notes app. It looks like a tablet with lines on it and a + button in the bottom corner.

Section 2 of 2:

Customizing the Control Center

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Tap and hold the screen in Control Center to customize it. With the release of iOS 18, you can easily customize your Control Center from within the Control Center itself. Tap and hold an area of the screen outside the control buttons or groups until outlines appear around the controls.^{[2]
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- You can also tap the + icon at the top left corner of the screen in Control Center to turn on customization options.
- If you’re using an earlier version of iOS or iPadOS, you can customize your controls by going to Settings > Control Center.
While in customization mode, tap and hold an icon you want to move, then drag it to move it to a different part of the screen. The controls around it will automatically rearrange themselves.
If you don’t want a particular icon or group of icons in your Control Center, tap the - in the upper left corner to delete it. You can always put it back later.
When you’re in customization mode, you’ll see a light grey area wrapping around the bottom right part of each button or group of controls. Tap and drag that area to expand or shrink a button or control group.
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Tap Add a Control to add more controls. You can see this option at the bottom of the Control Center while you’re in customization mode. There are tons of additional controls you can add to your control center. While many of the more popular options are at the top of the Add a Control menu, you can scroll down to see additional options arranged by category (such as Capture, Connectivity, or Display & Brightness.
- If you can’t find what you want, use the Search Controls field at the top of the menu and enter a keyword, such as “stopwatch” or “remote.”
- Tapping an icon will instantly add it to your main Control Center screen, where you can move or resize it as you like.
Don’t like the changes you’ve made? It’s easy to revert your Control Center back to its default mode. Open the Settings app, tap Control Center, and select Reset Control Center. Tap Reset Control Center again to confirm.
In Settings > Control Center, you can also choose whether or not to allow access to the Control Center when you have an app open. You might want to disable this option if you find yourself accidentally opening the Control Center in certain apps. You’ll still be able to open the Control Center from your Home Screen.