15 Icons You Should Add to Your IPhone’s Control Center
Your iPhone’s Control Center gives you quick access to system features, apps, and shortcuts, and its default layout gives you access to system switches, music playback, screen mirroring, timer, and more.
But did you know that Control Center has a hidden treasure trove of other features and shortcuts, such as screen recording, a quick note launcher, and a QR code scanner?
How to add controls to Control Center
Adding or removing switches in Control Center is easy: Open the Settings app and go to Control Center . Scroll down and click the Plus button next to the icon you want to add (Apple calls them “controls”). The control will be added to the section at the top of this screen. You can use the three-line pen icon to rearrange the controls as you see fit.
Now let’s look at the controls that are worth adding to your iPhone’s Control Center.
Turn on dark mode with one tap
Love using dark mode ? Don’t want to go into settings every time you want to turn it on? Just add a dark mode toggle. It’s a simple toggle that you can turn dark mode on or off with a single tap.
Use a full-featured Apple TV remote
Can’t find your Siri Remote for Apple TV? Stop looking under your pillows and use Apple TV controls in Control Center. It gives you a full remote interface with touchpad, menus, playback controls and wake/sleep functions.
Ping your Apple Watch
You can always use your Apple Watch to find your iPhone, but now if you’re using iOS 17 or later, you can ping your Apple Watch and your iPhone !
Add a new Check My Watch control, and when you tap the icon, your Apple Watch will make a sound loud enough to send you searching.
Quickly scan QR codes
The Camera app on iPhone has a built-in QR code scanner, but it doesn’t work automatically—you’ll still have to click the link from the QR code. The Code Scanner control solves this problem. Tap the icon, point your phone at the QR code, and the link will automatically open in the specified app.
Control your favorite HomeKit devices
There is a HomeKit accessories section in Control Center, but it takes up too much space. Instead, add a single Home control that expands to display all HomeKit-connected devices and accessories.
Zoom in on anything
Magnifier is another hidden iPhone secret, available as an app in iOS 15 and later. Using this control, you can open a specialized camera interface that allows you to quickly zoom in on your subject (up to 10x).
Start recording your iPhone screen
The screen recording control gives you access to the screen recording feature with just one touch. Just tap the icon to start recording. When finished, tap the pill icon on the top toolbar to stop. The recording will be saved in the Photos app. If you also want to record audio, press and hold the Screen Recording control and turn on the Microphone option.
Shazam songs
Your iPhone has built-in Shazam music recognition. Add the Shazam icon to Control Center and tap it to let your iPhone do its thing. Once the song is recognized, you’ll receive a notification that you can tap to open the song’s Shazam page in your web browser. Want to listen to a song on Apple Music? Long press a notification to open that option as well.
Take a quick note
When you tap the Quick Note icon, a new note will open and a keyboard will instantly appear so you can start typing. When you’re done, tap Save and it will join the other notes in your Notes app.
Enhance text to make it easier to read
This is one of my favorite accessibility features on iPhone and iPad. I like larger text, but I don’t like using the display zoom feature, which enlarges everything in the app, including the UI and buttons. The Text Size control will allow you to increase the text size of the app you’re currently using, or quickly change the default text size for your entire iPhone.
Use the Guided Access feature when you give your phone to someone else.
Guided Access lets you lock your iPhone to only what’s currently on screen. No one will be able to access the rest of the iPhone until you authenticate with Face ID or a passcode. First, set it up in Settings > Accessibility > Guided Access . Then add the icon to Control Center and tap it to enter Guided Access mode.
Use Low Power Mode to save battery power
The Low Power Mode control isn’t anything special—it’s just a one-touch button to turn on Low Power Mode—but use it often. Whenever I want to extract more battery life from my iPhone, I like to have easy access to the Low Power Mode switch.
Record voice notes without missing a beat.
Voice memos are another one of those incredibly simple but incredibly useful shortcuts. Tap it to open the Voice Recorder app, or long-press the icon and then tap the New Recording button to quickly start a new audio recording.
Launch your favorite accessibility shortcuts
Accessibility Shortcuts are another example of how much attention iOS places on accessibility. This nifty icon brings many accessibility features to Control Center, such as color filters, invert color, and AssistiveTouch. You can select up to three accessibility features that you want quick access to from Control Center.
Enable Live Listen for your AirPods
Hearing Control provides quick access to Live Listening and Background Sound features (iOS 15 and later). Live Listen is a special feature of AirPods that helps you hear conversations in noisy environments. The Background Sounds feature allows you to listen to sounds such as ocean, rain, stream, balanced noise, bright noise, and dark noise.