Control Center is one of iOS 7 brand new easy to use features that makes it very efficient to toggle on and off certain settings. To activate and get into Control Center, you swipe up from the bottom of the screen.
You are now able to quickly access Airplane Mode, Wifi, Bluetooth, Do Not Disturb Mode and Lock Rotation. You are also able to easily adjust the brightness of your display by adjusting the slider next to the suns. You also have controls for playing your music, with a volume slider below the controls. Below that you do have the option to AirDrop (only available on iPhone 5 or later, iPad fouth generation and newer, and iPod Touch fifth generation and newer) and AirPlay which allows you to wirelessly project the device’s display using an Apple TV or to project music to Bluetooth speakers or AirPlay speakers.
For quick easy access you now do have a flashlight. Even if your phone display goes to sleep, the flashlight still stays on, so make sure you actually do tap the flashlight again, to turn it off. You don’t need to have a Flashlight app anymore as it is built in. You do also have easy access to the Clock app, so you can set alarms, timers, or use the stop watch. You have access to the calculator app. You also have a new way to open up the Camera app.
For example, Control Center is great because now I do not have to unlock my iPhone, type in my password, go into Settings, turn on Bluetooth and have it connect again with my car system. Now I just swipe up to open up Control Center, tap on Bluetooth and it automatically pairs up with my car speakerphone.
However, not everybody might want to access Control Center from their lock screen. You can control where on your phone you want to be able to activate Control Center. For example, you can decide whether or not you want to be able to access control center on your lock screen, and while you are in apps. To set this up, go into settings.
Then press on Control Center.
You can then toggle to access Control Center on the Lock Screen on and off. Same thing with accessing it within apps.
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why is it not available when in messenger app while typing a text message.
at least for me
The flip up screen is available in the messenger app, just might take some getting used to :-)
It is available within Messages. You may need to swipe a little lower than normal.
You can also access settings by just asking SIRI, for example I wanted to change the voice from female to male so I asked SIRI, change SIRI settings… SIRI took me right to the SIRI settings sub menu, I did not have to drill down. This works for all of the settings sub menus which is nice. You can also ask Siri to say, for example make “Ron” my friend and she will make that relationship. Then when your in your car just say “take me to my friends” without touching your settings or maps…. very nice Apple
Control Center is hard to activate. I find myself trying to flick up several times before it activates.
I’ve not had that issue at all. It’s incredibly easy and very useful. Thanks, Android for letting Apple copy you in order to become usable!
If it were the other way around, Apple would sue, no doubt.
I can’t get mine to work at all on my phone or ipad mini ?.
Same for me on my iPhone 4S. I have an Otterbox case, so I wonder if I just can’t quite get far enough down on the screen to get the swipe to work all the time. It’s frustrating.
Would also have been nice if they included a silence option for all sounds on the phone. Would be a nice and easy way to silence the phone when going into a quick meeting. As it stands, I have no idea how to silence my phone apart from the ringer volume buttons on the side.
Doesn’t the Do Not Disturb button do that? And that’s in the Control Center. I’m not positive it does though.
@thejaunald
I just tried it. Turn on the Do no Disturb function via the control center. Then sent myself a text from my android phone. The text alert still sounded.
I have an otterbox and it does prevent control center from coming up….
I’ve had the exact same problem.
It works 1 out of every 10 times or so.
I can’t seem it get Control Centre to work at all on my iPad Mini
I too am having difficulties in activating control center. Doesn’t open consistently on my iPhone 5
Why do the Settings icons not have gradients, but app icons do?
For some reason, my music controls are not working properly from the control center. Any ideas on how to fix this problem?
Same problem here. Help please!
Me too. :(, cant play the next song.
I have an Otterbox Defender case on my iPhone 5 and I can’t access the Control Center with the case on. It works when I take it off.
I have the same case. I figured out how to get it to work for me. The trick is to start swiping at the start of the screen on bottom -> then go up. It’s difficult to do this with our case because of the way that our screen isn’t flush with the case. When your finger hits the screen, most of the time, it’s about 1-2mm above where it needs to start in order to trigger the window. So, try using the side of your finger right where it meets the side of your nail bed (totally stupid that we have to go through this amount of effort to get it to work). This part of your finger is skinny enough to hit the very bottom and trigger the window with an upward swipe. Make sure you start at the very very bottom of the screen.
Hope this helps you. If not, I’ll post a video and maybe that will help.
Thanks Theresa,
With practice I’ve been able to get the CC to appear more consistently, though I don’t know how much I’ll use it since it’s missing a couple things that would make sense to be there.
FYI, I removed the built-in screen protector form my Otterbox case right away. I have the same case for my personal Android phone and knew it was going to be a royal pain.So I’m swiping right on the glass of the iPhone.
Theresa! It helped me! Thanks! I had managed to get the control center one time and set my phone to play to some speakers. I tried literally more than 150 times to set it back. I didn’t come up with this method during all the variations I tried. Thanks so much for posting.
I just updated on my iPad 5, but the Air Play icon does not show up on my Control Center, nor does my flashlight or calculator icons as pictured above. I have tried changing the orientation and pulling up the control center further. Any ideas?
Same problem here… how to put calculator and flashlight in the ipad control centre please?
i dont mind it iOS 7 but when im listenin to my music and my phone is locked i try and change or pause the song it does not work and the other version i had no problem with that but know i do can ne 1 help me
Same problem here. Help please.
Me also.. Got the same prob.
Update your ios :)
I solved the problem with the control center and my Griffin armored case, maybe it will work for the Otterbox:
If you have a Griffin case you can push the protective cover film away from the case and then use a dremel tool to lightly sand the plastic in the right corner to the shape of a half-circle. Be careful not to dremel the plastic, but once you are done you can put the cover back on and now control center works perfectly as long as you use your finger in the bottom right corner.
Easy mod and fix…be patient and don’t rush it though.
My Otterbox and iPhone are work-issued. I’ve already done too much surgery on the case (removed the charging port cover and the built-in screen protector.) I think they’d frown on the Dremel ;)
I put tiny shims (ends of toothpicks) in the bottom corners of my OtterBox, between the phone and the case. The shims shift the phone up the tiniest amount, but it’s enough to make the swipe much easier.
Cool idea bigecart! I’ll give that a try!
Music player does not work @ all in control center !!! It make dame irritated !! I have restarted the phone several Times even though the problem does not getting off :(
Got the same prob. Help! :/
Update your ios :)
I have a big problem with opening my control center. I can swipe a milion times and nothing happnes… does anyone kow, how to fix this? Thanx
If you have a case on your phone, that may be the reason. See comments above.
It’s not working on my iPod touch can’t pause or start music or skip tracks
After fussing with this for a while today, I discovered that I cannot swipe up when my iPad Mini is standing. It has to be laying flat in order for the swipe up to open Control Center.
After updating to iOS 7 can’t turn on/off music in the player on locked screen of my iPhone 5. Did somebody find the solution? Please share!
i cant find Airplay… & i have the iPhone 5c
I’m using iOS7 with iPad 2. But I didn’t seen an airplay access in my control center. Any help please
How I can include ‘Mobile Data’ toggle option in Control Center screen. It’s a missing piece :)
i have grffin case on my iPhone 4 and the case its not allowing me to get control center up dose apple knows about this if they do are they gonna fixed this problem i can’t not get to my airplay
PLEASE HELP my iphone 4s screen isnt working properly how do i unlock portrait mode without the control centre is there another way?????
PLEASE HELP ME !!!! my iphone 4s screen isnt working properly how do i unlock portrait mode without the control centre is there another way
Control center is available while the phone is locked but is unavailable to be accessed while the phone is unlocked. Is there some function that blocks the control center? No phone case, I have checked all the settings and toggled them all on and off at random to check functionality. I have also restarted the phone a few times with no success.
Hi ihate (or is it Mr. crap? ;) )
CC is available when the phone is unlocked, but might not work in all apps, or in landscape mode. On my 4s, it’s very difficult to activate CC when in landscape mode, sometimes I give up trying. But on the home screen in portrait rotation it works fine for me.
This is probably the silliest request but I’ve tried e erything and can’t seem to find a fix. Last weekend I allowedmy niece to pkay games on my phone. She changed a setting and now a light ( flashlight?) beams with the rings. How d I turn this featgure off?