Networking Platter

The networking platter (Figure 43, 1A) lets you quickly turn various networking features of your device on and off. In the main Control Center view, it displays four controls:

• Airplane Mode: Tap the Airplane Mode button to disable all wireless connections: cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS. An airplane icon appears in the upper-left corner of the screen, on the status bar, when Airplane mode is on.

  Use Airplane mode to comply with airline regulations or to reduce battery usage.

  

• Cellular Data: Tap the Cellular Data button to disable all cellular connectivity, including voice.

• Wi-Fi: Tap the Wi-Fi button to turn Wi-Fi connectivity off or on.

• Bluetooth: Tap the Bluetooth button to enable or disable it. If you’re not using Bluetooth, leave it off to save battery.

Press the networking platter to see two additional controls:

• AirDrop: Tap the AirDrop button to choose who can send you AirDrop content: no one, only your contacts, or everyone. Contacts Only is a safe choice, because you can receive AirDrop content from people you know, but won’t get nefarious stuff from strangers.

• Personal Hotspot: If you have an iPhone—or an iPad with a cellular radio—and your carrier supports this feature, tap this button to share your device’s cellular connection over Wi-Fi. Your other devices can connect to your iPhone or iPad like any other Wi-Fi access point. Devices signed in to your iCloud account can connect without a password. Other devices require the password, which you can find on your Personal Hotspot device in Settings > Personal Hotspot.

Media Platter

The media platter (Figure 43, 1B) lets you control background audio, such as music and podcasts, as well as playback on AirPlay 2 devices like the Apple TV and HomePod. The platter shows the following:

• Track information: For music, the platter shows the track and artist. When playing a podcast, it shows the episode title and the show name.

• Skip buttons: When playing music, these display as previous and next track buttons. If a podcast is playing, they appear as skip buttons, which are handy for catching a line you missed or bypassing ads. Other apps may present different icons here.

• Play/Pause: These buttons / simply play or pause the audio.

• Output: Tap the Output icon in the upper-right corner to choose an audio or AirPlay video output.

Touching and holding the platter reveals two more controls:

• Scrubber: This shows how far you are into an audio track and the total duration. Drag the white knob to change the playback position.

• Volume: Drag the white knob to adjust the playback volume.

Tap Control Other Speakers & TVs and then the bubble for a device to switch to controlling that device (Figure 44). Even after exiting that screen, the Media Platter’s controls continue affecting that device until you switch it. While controlling an Apple TV, tapping the remote control icon brings up an onscreen Apple TV remote.

Other Control Center Functions

Here’s everything else Control Center can do:

• Orientation Lock: Tap Orientation Lock (Figure 43, 1C) to lock the screen’s orientation and prevent it from rotating.

• Screen Mirroring: Tapping Screen Mirroring (Figure 43, 1D) lets you select an AirPlay receiver to mirror your device’s screen to. To stop mirroring, tap Screen Mirroring again and tap Stop Mirroring.

• Focus: Tap to choose a Focus (see Find Your Focus), or tap the icon to enable the currently selected Focus, (Figure 43, 1E) which prevents notification alerts, FaceTime calls, and phone calls from disturbing you with noise, vibration, or your screen’s backlight. Timers or alarms set in the Clock app override Do Not Disturb. See Just Turn On Do Not Disturb.

• Brightness: Adjust the slider to a comfortable level (Figure 43, 1F). You can also automatically keep the brightness at an appropriate level: visit Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size to access the Auto-Brightness switch.

  Touch and hold the brightness slider to reveal three other buttons:

  • Dark Mode : Tap this to turn Dark Mode on and off.

  • Night Shift : Night Shift warms the colors of your display to make it easier to sleep. Tap the button once to either schedule Night Shift or manually turn it on until 7 A.M. Tap it again to turn Night Shift off. You can adjust Night Shift settings in Settings > Display & Brightness > Night Shift.

  • True Tone : True Tone (available on select devices) adjusts the display to maintain consistent color presentation in different lighting situations.

• Volume: Adjust the system volume to a comfortable level. Touch and hold the slider to see a full-screen volume control (Figure 43, 1G).

• Home: If you have HomeKit accessories, a button appears to view accessories and scenes (Figure 43, 1H), and other buttons appear giving quick access to accessories commonly used that time of day (Figure 43, 1I, 1J). Check out Take Control of Apple Home Automation for a complete guide to HomeKit.

The following controls can be added, removed, or repositioned in Settings > Control Center:

• Accessibility Shortcuts: Tap Accessibility Shortcuts to quickly access Accessibility features (Figure 43, 2A). You can choose what appears here in Settings > Accessibility > Accessibility Shortcut.

• Alarm: Tap Alarm to open the Clock app to the Alarm tab (Figure 43, 2B).

• Announce Notifications: If you have AirPods or CarPlay paired to a device, Siri announces notifications as you receive them. This can turn that feature off and on.

• Apple TV Remote: Tap Apple TV Remote to reveal a virtual remote that you can use to control your Apple TV HD or Apple TV 4K (Figure 43, 2C). You can select which device you control at the top of the screen.

• Calculator: Tap Calculator to open the Calculator app. Touch and hold it to reveal an option to copy the last Calculator result (Figure 43, 2D). (Not available on iPad.)

• Camera: Tap Camera to open the Camera app (Figure 43, 2E). Touch and hold it to reveal Take Selfie, Record Video, Take Photo (or Take Portrait on compatible phones), and Record Slo-Mo. See Capture Camera Basics.

• Code Scanner: Tap this (Figure 43, 2F) to open a scanner for QR codes. The Camera app can read those codes, but this is much more full featured.

• Dark Mode: Tap the Dark Mode button (Figure 43, 2G) to turn Dark Mode on and off.

• Feedback Assistant: While running beta operating systems, this option (Figure 43, 2H) appears to help you report problems.

• Flashlight: Tapping Flashlight turns on the LED flash on iPhones and iPads that have one, turning your device into a flashlight (Figure 43, 2I). Press it to reveal a slider that lets you adjust the flash’s brightness.

• Guided Access: The Guided Access control enables Guided Access for the current app (Figure 43, 2J). Until Guided Access is turned off, the user is stuck in the designated app, which is handy for young children.

• Hearing: If you have AirPods connected, this button lets you turn the Live Listen feature on and off, which turns your AirPods into a listening device, with the iPhone or iPad acting as a microphone (Figure 43, 2K).

• Home: Tap Home (Figure 43, 2L) to reveal a panel that lets you control Favorite Accessories and Favorite Scenes. This isn’t really necessary now with Home being built into Control Center.

• Low Power Mode: Turns Low Power Mode on or off (Figure 43, 3A). Low Power Mode turns off or adjusts certain features to maximize battery life, like turning down screen brightness, locking the screen after 30 seconds, disabling 5G, and turning off background app refresh.

• Keyboard Brightness: This can adjust the keyboard brightness on an Apple Magic Keyboard, but no other model.

• Magnifier: Tap Magnifier to open the super-handy Magnifier feature (Figure 43, 3B). The Magnifier uses your device camera like a magnifying glass, letting you zoom in on small text and other hard-to-see things. On newer devices it also has a Detection Mode that can identify objects and read signs (see Detect Objects with Magnifier). Also see Save Magnifier “Activities”.

• Music Recognition: What’s the name of that tune? This turns on built-in Shazam song recognition, which listens to a song through the microphone and tries to identify it (Figure 43, 3C). (Apple owns Shazam.)

• Notes: Tapping Notes while your device is unlocked opens the Notes app (Figure 43, 3D). But tap it while your phone is locked to create an Instant Note, which is like a regular note, except that it’s accessible from the Lock screen for an amount of time set in Settings > Notes > Access Notes from Lock Screen.

  Touch and hold the Notes button to reveal these options:

  • New Note: Open Notes with a new note.

  • New Checklist: Open a new note with a checklist already created.

  • New Photo: Create a new note and open the Camera to capture an image for the note.

  • Scan Document: Scan a document with the camera and add it to a note.

• Quick Note: This opens up the Quick Note window to jot down a quick note. These notes are saved to the Quick Notes folder in the Notes app (Figure 43, 3E).

• Screen Recording: Tap Screen Recording to begin recording your screen after a three-second countdown (Figure 43, 3F). The control’s icon turns red while recording. Tap it again to stop. Touch and hold the control to reveal an option to turn Microphone Audio on or off, which is handy if you want to narrate your screen recording. Screen recordings are saved in Photos.

• Sound Recognition: This triggers an accessibility feature that listens for certain sounds—like alarms, crying babies, glass breaking, and pets—and alerts you if your device hears them. (Figure 43, 3G) Tap it once to turn on the feature, and then again to select the sounds to listen for. Siri doesn’t work when Sound Recognition is enabled. Adjust settings in Settings > Accessibility > Sound Recognition.

• Stage Manager: This button appears only on compatible iPads. Tapping it triggers the Stage Manager feature, which lets you display multiple windows on screen at once. Touch and hold it to reveal options to show or hide Recent App and the Dock. See Manage the Stage.

• Stopwatch: Tap Stopwatch to open the Clock app to the Stopwatch tab (Figure 43, 3H).

• Text Size: Tap Text Size control to reveal a slider that lets you adjust system text size (Figure 43, 3I).

• Timer: Tapping Timer opens up the Clock app to the Timer tab (Figure 43, 3J). Handy for cooking! Touch and hold to quickly set a timer between one minute and two hours.

• Voice Memos: Tap Voice Memos (Figure 43, 3K) to open the Voice Memos app.

• Wallet: Tap Wallet to open the Wallet app (Figure 43, 3L). Touch and hold for shortcuts like payment methods and recent transactions. (Not available on iPad.)