iOS 18 will be fully unveiled this Monday during the WWDC keynote. According to one of the latest rumors, the iPhone update will introduce a redesigned Control Center.
A core feature of the new Control Center is the ability to place controls on multiple separate pages, rather than the single-page view currently available. Here’s what that means for you.
Control Center becomes more powerful than ever
Mark Gurman writes Bloomberg:
Control Center… gets an updated interface that allows keyboard shortcuts within the Control Center view itself to be rearranged and placed across multiple pages. It will also have a new music widget and an updated interface for controlling smart home appliances.
Way back in iOS 10, Apple introduced a multi-page version of Control Center. You could swipe between three different sets of controls. Unfortunately, those controls weren’t customizable at all.
What Apple has planned for iOS 18 will, in some ways, hark back to that long-forgotten design. Most of the time, though, it will be something brand new that’s more powerful than ever.
Create your own multi-page Control Center in iOS 18
Currently, Control Center in iOS 17 has some customization options. You can open Settings ⇾ Control Center and change which specific controls appear in Control Center. But certain controls can’t be customized: elements like the Now Playing, Focus, and Connectivity controls are all static. Their location cannot be changed and they cannot be deleted.
In iOS 18, reports like Gurman’s indicate that users will gain much more customization.
Think about what Apple has done with the iOS widget system in recent years. Widgets can be placed and organized on your home screen and lock screen, giving you exactly the controls that matter most to you.
It looks like something similar is coming to Control Center.
Just like when you enter “rock mode” on the iPhone home screen, iOS 18 lets you rearrange, add, and remove controls right from the Control Center interface. You no longer have to go to Settings first.
A core component of this newfound freedom will be the ability to create multiple pages of controls. Unlike the static options in iOS 10’s design, iOS 18 should let you create fully customizable pages to fit your needs, just like you can with home screen pages using apps and widgets.
This extra screen real estate should pair nicely with the reported changes to the Now Playing and Home controls, which could take up more space than before. Apple could also stop hiding extra layers of control behind long presses. This would benefit not only the Now Playing and Home controls, but also Focus, volume controls and more.
Will third-party apps be able to access Control Center?
This may be a bit radical, but it would be great if Apple also opened up the Control Center to third-party developers, allowing apps to offer their own custom controls there.
Building on the foundation laid by widgets, it makes a lot of sense to enable third-party controls. It’s very much in line with what the company has been doing with widgets in recent years.
Complete
I’m really excited about the Control Center capabilities in iOS 18.
Apple could be promoting this new capable, redesigned Control Center as part of a broader push to bring greater customization options to iPhone users. In iOS 18 you can customize your home screens in more ways than ever, so why not use Control Center too?
What are you most excited about with the new Control Center? Do you think Apple will open it up to third-party apps? Let us know in the comments.
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