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All the new ways to customize your iPhone Control Center using iOS 18
Apple recently launched the iOS 18 public beta on the iPhone. This gives those enrolled a first glimpse of upcoming features, including the refreshed Control Center.
iOS 18 brings a new coat of paint to the Control Center. While continuing to be accessible by swiping down on the Home Screen, users now have much more control over what quick actions are available. The Control Center introduces new controls and options, including the ability to tailor the arrangement and sizing of many controls to suit your needs. It also features a brand-new search menu for available controls, alongside the ability to finally swap out Lock Screen controls (bye-bye Flashlight).
Here are all the new and meaningful changes made to the iPhone’s Control Center.
Apple Intelligence and a new Control Center may have stolen the show, but there's plenty of smaller iOS 18 tweaks just now being uncovered.
A trip through the new Control Center
Brand-new options and controls are available to add to your Control Center.
Apple is invoking a lot of the changes it's making to the Home Screen and bringing new customizable options to the Control Center. Fleshing out its central hub for accessible controls and quick app options, Control Center now features a grid-style layout. By default, you’ll still have access to the ‘Connectivity’ widget with Airplane Mode, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and more. Lock screen option, Focus mode selections, and ‘Now Playing’ are also still available after installing the ioS 18 public beta.
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However, on the top left corner of the Control Center is a new ‘+’ symbol. Selecting this pulls up the new grid-style layout (more on that below). At the bottom of the screen is the ‘Add a Control’ option. Within this menu is a laundry list of possible controls to add. These range from Quick Note to adding a smart light scene. There's also a more expansive list of accessibility functions, supporting hearing, motor, and visual assistance tools.
Out of the new available options are the smart home scene and accessory options. Previously, the Control Center only supported a ‘Home option’ that would then take you to a dedicated menu screen with all of your smart lights, scene presets, etc. Now, my most commonly used smart lights and presets are available directly in the Control Centre. Another option I like is the ability to ping your Apple Watch. For someone who has a habit of leaving their Apple Watch in another room, this is a welcome perk.
Control Center also has two dedicated pages for music and connectivity. Swiping down on the Control Center first takes you to the ‘Now Playing’ page, where you can control playback. Whether you’re listening on Apple Music or Spotify, the album cover and details are shown here. Airplay options are also available here as well. Swipe down again, and you’re brought to the Connectivity page with a breakdown of Airplane Mode, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, as well as VPN, Hotspots, and Satellite options. Both can also be replaced by other large-scale widgets, but I’ve struggled to find anything compelling as a substitute.
The answer involves your budget and lifestyle.
Familiar grid, new customization
Apples new grid-style layout for its Control Center is not perfect, but it's improved.
As iOS 18 lets you add several new controls and quick access options thanks to Control Center's new grid-style layout. To accommodate all the new supported choices, you can resize and rearrange your Control Center to your liking. Like the Home Screen on iPhone, you’re able to long-press on Control Center to enter jiggle mode. Here, you’ll see a series of circles representing the open spots available. You can also now move and reorganize the app's controls to your liking.
iOS 18 is still a work in progress, so bugs and hitches are expected. During my tests, I noticed some minor frustrating hiccups when rearranging and resizing controls.
Apple introduces a pretty novel resizing feature, too. Rather than leverage the same sizing process as widgets, you can manually resize controls by holding on to the bottom right corner. In most cases, you can expand the controls to 2x1 nodes or 2x2. By making the control node larger, you can find additional controls and contextual information. In the case of my Nanoleaf control in my office, I'm able to view the brightness percentage. Clicking it, I can select a new lighting theme from a series of presets. Unfortunately, not every control currently offers useful options after resizing. To be fair controls like Screen Recorder, Lock Screen, etc. can only offer so much. Resizing some controls is merely for aesthetic or accessibility purposes.
iOS 18 is still a work in progress, so bugs and hitches are expected. During my tests, I encountered a few minor frustrating hiccups when rearranging and resizing controls. For instance, it’s difficult to move a 1x1 control node next to a 2x1-sized control without surrounding controls being moved as well. It takes some patience and fine-tuning but it's possible. The other issue I’ve run into is a control accidentally going off-screen when resized, creating a second page of controls instead of defaulting to the original size. Hopefully, these minor issues will be addressed before the global release of iOS 18 this fall.
Lock Screen controls are finally customizable
We can finally swap out the flashlight
I consider the new Lock Screen controls adjacent to the Control Center. A lot of the control options and new menu layout extend to the Lock Screen. By default, the iPhone consistently supports the flashlight and camera controls. However, iOS 18 finally lets you swap these out for whatever supported controls you desire.
While customization is limited, its still a step in the right direction.
To change your Lock Screen controls, long-press your screen, hit ‘Customize’ on the bottom, and select ‘Lock Screen.’ You’ll now see the option to remove either the flashlight, camera, or both. You can then tap those available spaces to add new controls. Being left-handed, I’ve never liked having the camera control on the right side of the screen. I’ve thankfully been able to move it over to the left side for easier access. It shouldn’t come as a surprise, but I’ve used the other slot for the Home control so I can easily access my smart home lighting.
Unlike the Control Center, you still aren’t able to resize the controls. Additionally, you can’t move these controls in any way. While customization is limited, it’s a step in the right direction. Giving more agency over their controls and customization has long been requested by iPhone users.
