Congrats on getting a new Apple iPad. They’ve become quite amazing – and astonishingly slim – devices with big, beautiful screens and surprisingly zippy processors. If you’ve upgraded from an older unit, it’s worth mentioning that they no longer run iOS but instead have their own version of the operating system called iPadOS. There are some additional split-screen features, most notably, but if you want a full rundown, here’s a helpful discussion: Differences Between iPad OS and iOS.
The screen of shortcuts you display by swiping down from the top right corner towards the center of the screen is known as the Control Center, and variations of it appear on iOS (iPhones) and macOS too. Power users utilize these shortcuts all the time, particularly things like brightness, audio volume, and Bluetooth connection controls. Configuring it, however, involves going into the Settings area, there’s no shortcut for that!
CONTROL CENTER ON AN APPLE IPAD
Let’s start with the Control Center setup on my Apple iPad Mini:
Lots of buttons with fairly cryptic icons, though a bit of experimentation reveals their functionality. Still, how often do I use the Shazam music identification service that it deserves a spot on this screen? And I never control my smarthome devices through this interface (the third row from the bottom).
A logical approach might be to push and hold on one of the controls to reveal some type of setting or configuration options, but if I do that with one of the smarthome light controls, for example, here’s what I see:
Useful if I want to change the color of the bulb, but not useful if I want to hide the entire control.
Instead, go to the Settings app on your iPad.
CUSTOMIZE CONTROL CENTER THROUGH SETTINGS
Once in Settings, choose “Control Center” from the left column of options:
The first major block of entries labeled “Included Controls” are the buttons that currently appear in your Control Center. Notice that I have Apple TV Remote, Music Recognition, Voice Memos, etc. This also lets you figure out the icon -> app mapping, if you’re curious.
Controls that have a red dash adjacent are the ones that are displayed on your Control Center. In the second block of entries, there are lots of controls that aren’t displayed on your Control Center. You can add them by simply tapping on the green “+” button as desired. Remove one by tapping the red “-“, which brings up this confirmation:
See those three-horizontal-lines icons on these entries? Tap and hold and you can drag the entries to change their order and thereby the order they appear on the Control Center too.
To remove the smarthome related shortcuts, simply disable “Show Home Controls” near the top:
Now, with a more streamlined set of options, here’s how my Control Center appears:
Much better. Now, before we part ways, a few other handy Control Center features…
USEFUL CONTROL CENTER SHORTCUTS
Two of my favorite shortcuts from this screen are Screen Mirroring, particularly useful if you have an AppleTV or other device that works with AirPlay:
You can see I have a number of options from which I can choose. The other useful shortcut is Focus:
I think most people ignore Focus, but it’s a great way to temporarily mute notifications so you can stay, well, focused on what you’re doing. Try it!
Pro Tip: I’ve been writing about the Apple iPad lineup and its many apps for years. While you’re here, please do check out my extensive iPad help area for lots more tutorials!
