The estimated reading time for this post is 5 minutes
Imagine having instant access to the most frequently used features of your iPhone. Then imagine being able to use those shortcuts from anywhere on your phone — from any app or screen, even if you haven’t yet entered your passcode. How handy would it be to have that kind of control of your iPhone?
The updates in iOS 7 last fall brought many changes to the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch so that even if you didn’t get a new device, you can still enjoy many new features including Control Center. 30 Top iOS 7 Tips and Tricks! explains how you can make the most of these features to make you feel as if you got a new device, even if you didn’t.
If you have an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch running iOS 7, be sure to become familiar with Control Center for easy access to lots of features for your device. You can save precious time and plenty of frustration by using Control Center to control your phone.
What Is Control Center?
Control Center is a translucent panel you can open by swiping up from the bottom of older iPhones. Beginning with iPhone X (that got rid of the Home button), Control Center opens when you swipe down from the upper right corner of your screen.
Control Center gives you instant access to shortcuts for your most important controls from any screen on your iDevice. Instead of opening your phone and hunting for the control you want, you can easily swipe your screen to access Control Center. You can open Control Center even if you’re in an app already, on a call, or haven’t yet entered the passcode to unlock your device.
You can be doing almost anything on your device and access Control Center with minimal interruption to the task at hand. Just swipe up your screen and Control Center will appear.
How to Use Control Center
You can use Control Center by swiping up with any finger from the very bottom of your screen for older iPhones and from the upper right corner of your screen for newer ones. When you swipe, Control Center will appear as an overlay on top of the screen you were viewing.
To exit Control Center, either swipe down or press the Home button for older phones, or swipe up for newer iPhones.
Control Center Settings
You don’t have to allow access to Control Center from anywhere. If you would prefer not to be able to access Control Center from your Lock Screen or within apps, you can restrict access to it.
From Settings you can restrict or allow access to Control Center on your Lock Screen or from within apps. To control access to Control Center, go to:
Settings => Control Center
You can toggle on or off:
- Access on Lock Screen
- Access within Apps
What You Can Control with Control Center
Using Control Center you can access certain apps, features, and controls so you don’t have to dig through your apps or Settings to get to what you need. Save time and frustration by having Control Center easily accessible no matter what you’re doing on your phone.
Control Center gives you shortcuts to these features:
Flashlight
No need to fumble with your iPhone or iPod Touch in the dark to find your flashlight app. Swipe from the bottom of the screen, press the Flashlight icon in Control Center and the flash from your camera will illuminate your surroundings.
If you have a separate flashlight app for your iPhone now may be the time to delete it. Chances are pretty high that you’ll never need it again!
Timer
Press the timer icon to set the timer, set an alarm, start the stopwatch or use the world clock. You can set the timer to sound an alarm or use it to turn off your music if you want to fall asleep to your tunes.
Calculator
Access the calculator quickly by pressing the calculator icon in Control Center on your iPhone or iPod Touch.
→ Note that because the iPad does not have a native calculator app, there’s no calculator icon in Control Center for the iPad.
Camera
Open your camera app quickly from anywhere by pressing the camera icon in Control Center.
→ Note that you can also access the camera quickly without unlocking your phone by tapping the camera icon on your Lock Screen.
AirDrop
Send and receive photos, videos, apps, web pages and more to other iPhone users nearby using AirDrop.
You can access AirDrop in Control Center and make yourself visible to no one, your contacts, or everyone. To save battery life, choose Off until you need to use AirDrop.
AirPlay
Send your photos, music, and videos to an AppleTV using AirPlay. You can also mirror what’s on your iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch screen to your TV using AirPlay and an AppleTV.
Brightness
You can control the brightness of your screen in Control Center. Slide the brightness meter to adjust the brightness of the screen. Remember that the brighter the screen, the more battery power you’re using.
Music Controls
Access your sound controls from Control Center. You can adjust the volume to be louder or softer, and play/pause, fast forward, and rewind with music controls. You can see what song or other audio file is playing and the elapsed time as well.
Airplane Mode
Swipe up and press the airplane icon to enable or disable Airplane Mode. No need to open the Settings app to control Airplane Mode (though you still can use Settings to control Airplane Mode if you really want to!).
Tip=> Your device will charge more quickly if you put it into Airplane Mode while it’s charging.
Wi-Fi
To conserve battery power, or disconnect from Wi-Fi for another reason, you can turn off Wi-Fi from Control Center. You can turn it back on from there too.
Bluetooth
Tap the Bluetooth icon in Control Center to turn Bluetooth on and off.
Do Not Disturb
To silence your phone and turn off sound notifications and alerts, turn on Do Not Disturb by pressing the moon icon in Control Center.
Lock Rotation
To lock the screen into portrait or landscape mode, press the lock rotation icon in Control Center. Press it again to unlock it.
Your Thoughts
Have you been using Control Center? Did you know Control Center existed? What controls have you been using most? Is there a feature you wish was included in Control Center? Let us know in the Comments section below!
Hi Carolyn,
I haven’t got an Iphone, but I know how to do a advanced control panel in windows 7. Just make a new folder on the desktop and name it : Advanced control panel. {ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C} and you are then God as far as Windows 7 is concerned. It works!
I have been editing you picture. I might use it next week, but this week was April Fools day, so I tried some ideas around that. I took some interesting pictures yesterday, we had really good light for a change.
Hi Mike, Thanks for the tech tip!
I’m looking forward to seeing what you did with my picture. All tips are helpful!
I haven’t used iphone, but i used to play with my friends iphone.Options of iphone are some what difficult when compared to other phones.Your tech tips can really help people like me.
Hi Sofia, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! I’m so glad you found this helpful. By learning about Control Center you may find the iPhone easier to use. Just swipe up from the bottom of any screen and you have instant access to many apps, features and controls. Control Center isn’t obvious when you first use the iPhone which is why I was inspired to share information about it here at The Wonder of Tech.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us, Sofia.
Of course I’m really an Iphone and I really loved these shortcuts you’ve shared and I guess I’ll try them all.
Thanks
Hi Nithin, Yes, even people who have owned iPhones for a while may not be familiar with Control Center. Within the past few weeks I discovered that a lot of my friends either didn’t know about Control Center at all or didn’t know what it was and what it could do.
I’m glad you are learning about Control Center, Nithin. It will make using your iPhone much easier and convenient.
Well I just learned something new, thank you Carolyn. I did not know about this but I was just checking mine out as I read through your post. I think this is very convenient I must say.
I so appreciate you letting me know, thank you so much.
~Adrienne
Hi Adrienne, Yes, I have checked with many people but no one was completely familiar with this very handy tool. Some knew it was there because they accidentally pulled it up but no one I spoke with was using it intentionally. All were excited to learn about it though!
I’m so glad you found out about Control Center here, Adrienne. You will be using it often, I’m sure!
Hello Carolyn,
I think it time I upgrade my iPad to iOS 7. Sincerely, I did not hitherto give a damn but with all the awesome features you just explained, I believe upgrading will be surely worth the stress.
Don’t you think so?
Always,
Terungwa
Hi Terungwa, The new features of iOS 7 make updating a very compelling option. But older iPads struggle with the computing demands of iOS 7. If you have the original iPad or iPad 2 you may want to avoid iOS 7. But if you have a newer iPad, you will enjoy the new features of iOS 7!
Hi Carolyn,
Good to be here again!
So sad to note that,
as Mike Maynard said,
I too don’t have one 🙂
But no worries, I have a
windows phone. Hope
I may get soon one 🙂
meanwhile i try Maynard’s
tip. 🙂
Keep writing, Keep informed.
May you have a Happy and Blessed Weeked
~ Phil
Hi Phil, Yes, I really appreciate when readers offer tips to each other. I hope Mike’s tip works well for you!
To be frank I do not have any iPhone device but my friend who is a tech geek is surely gonna love this tips and tricks. Thanks a ton for sharing.
Control center? on my iPhone? really? I bet there are so many things I am yet to find out about my new iphone. I see to be discovering changes on ios 7 all thanks to this wonder of tech.
Hi Rebecca, Yes, now that I’ve been using iOS 7 for over six months, I wanted to feature Control Center which is the new iOS 7 feature I use most often. Enjoy the convenience of it, Rebecca!
Hi Charmie, Yes, people with iPhones will really enjoy learning about Control Center. No longer will they have to dig through settings to access these features. Thanks so much for sharing this with your friend!
Nice article, instead of digging in for apps, can get it in control center directly.
Thankyou
Hi Harish, Yes, you can access many features in Control Center directly instead of digging for them in apps or settings. Very handy!
Very much thanks for these shortcuts. Will surely try on my iphone and see how it goes
Hi Akshat, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! You’re very welcome, I hope you do find these shortcuts handy. I’m thinking you will enjoy them.