Customize Your iPhone's Control Center with New iOS 18 Features

Apple's iOS 18, now in public beta, introduces some much-needed enhancements to the Control Center, making it more user-friendly than ever. With this latest OS version, you can directly tweak, shuffle, and customize the sections and icons within Control Center, enabling you to create multiple screens that you can access with a simple swipe. Adding new controls has also become more straightforward and intuitive. Let me walk you through how it all works.

Also: 5 iOS 18 features I've been using on Android for a while

In older versions of iOS, customizing Control Center was a bit of a hassle—you had to dive into the Settings app to add or remove controls. But with iOS 18, you can manage everything right from Control Center itself. This means you can visually add, remove, and rearrange controls with ease.

If you're keen to try this out, you'll need to install the iOS 18 public beta on your iPhone. While it's more stable than the earlier developer beta, it's wise to use a spare iPhone if you have one. To get the beta, follow the steps outlined in "Apple just released the iOS 18 public beta. Here's how to get it on your iPhone right now."

How to Customize Your iPhone's New Control Center with iOS 18

1. Access Control Center

To bring up Control Center, just swipe down from the top-right corner of your screen. You'll see that it's now organized into three different screens. The first screen shows the core controls, the second screen is dedicated to the audio player and related settings, and the third screen handles connectivity options. Swipe up or down to navigate between screens, or tap the icons on the right to jump to a specific one.

2. Move the Available Controls

You can shuffle around the controls on the first screen. To get started, tap the plus icon in the upper-left corner to enter edit mode. You'll notice borders around the controls with a minus sign at the top. Drag and drop each control to a new position until you're happy with the layout. Swipe up when you're done.

Also: Every iPhone model that can be updated to Apple's iOS 18 (and which ones can't)

3. Resize a Control

After tapping the plus icon, you'll see some controls have a gray curved handle in the lower-right corner. This means you can resize the control's icon. Just drag the handle up, down, or diagonally until it's the size you want, then let go.

4. Delete a Control

If there's a control you don't need anymore, you can delete it right from edit mode. Just tap the minus sign on the icon you want to remove. Once it's gone, the other icons will shift to fill the space.

5. Add a Control to an Existing Screen

Adding a new control to an existing screen is a breeze if there's space. Choose a screen with some room at the bottom. After tapping the plus icon, select "Add a Control." Browse through the available controls or search for a specific one using the Search field at the top. Tap the control you want, and it'll appear in the available space. From there, you can move or resize it as needed.

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6. Add a Control to a New Screen

If your current screens are packed, you can create new ones to accommodate more controls. Swipe down to the last screen, which should be full. Tap the plus icon and then "Add a Control." Browse or search for the control you want to add, tap it, and it'll appear on a new screen. You can keep adding controls this way, and you can create up to 15 screens, though you might not need that many.

7. Power Down from Control Center

One cool feature in iOS 18 is the ability to power off your iPhone directly from Control Center. When you open Control Center, you'll see a power button in the upper-right corner. Press and hold this button to go to the Power Off screen. Slide the icon to the right, and your phone will shut down.