With WWDC With just one weekend left, some of the features Apple is expected to announce are starting to become public. One of which is a revamp of one of the iPhone’s most central features, the Control Center, reports Bloomberg.
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The last major change to Control Center occurred almost five years ago, when Apple introduced the ability to add, remove, and rearrange buttons with the release of iOS 11. Next week the company is expected to allow users to further customize these buttons. including flashlight, screen recording, calculator, auto-rotate, screen mirroring and more, rearranging them from the Control Center page.
Why is this so important? Currently, rearranging icons in Control Center requires users to open the Settings app, tap multiple slides within the Control Center section, and then manually add, delete, or reorder what’s on the page. With iOS 18, you should be able to simply tap and hold an icon from the Control Center and drag it around, similar to how you would rearrange apps on the Home screen.
The new Control Center will also support multiple shortcut pages, Bloomberg says. I’ve never had the problem of having too many icons in Control Center, but I can see this being useful for those who want to organize them according to functionality; perhaps one page for basic tasks and another specifically for smart appliances.
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Speaking of which, Apple is also rumored to be adding a new music widget and an updated interface for smart home controls. Currently, the music player is permanently located in the top right corner of Control Center, with minimal functionality (only play, pause, and skip tracks). As for the status of smart home switches, it can get very chaotic when there are too many lights and accessories throughout the house; Basically each requires its own separate lever.
We’ll find out all the official details during Apple’s WWDC keynote, which you can tune into on Monday at 1 pm ET / 10 am PT.