Control Center gives iOS users quick access to commonly used controls and apps. By swiping up from any screen – including the Lock screen – users can do such things as switch on Airplane mode, turn Wi-Fi on or off, adjust the display brightness and similar basic functions of the device. Since iOS 7, it also included an integrated flashlight function to operate the reverse camera's flash LED as a flashlight. The flashlight feature is only available on iPhone and iPod Touch, and iPad Pro. Beginning with iOS 9.3, a Night Shift toggle became available through the Control Center on all iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad models that have an Apple A7 chip or later. Other functions are offered, such as the ability to turn Bluetooth, and Do Not Disturb on or off; lock the screen's orientation; play, pause, or skip a song, see what is playing; connect to AirPlay-enabled devices; and quickly access the clock, calculator, and camera apps. Users also have access to AirDrop, previously only available on Macs and newly added to iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch models using the Lightning connector in iOS 7, as a method of transferring files between Apple devices.
Design
In iOS 7 through iOS 9, it featured a single-paged slide up panel with a blurred background, which provided a layer of translucency over the content below. The design for the most part remained the same, aside from a few small, occasional changes. Due to the intense resources needed to create a blurred effect, iPhone 4, iPad 2 and iPad 3 do not feature a translucent background, and instead feature a grey background with slight transparency without blur. In iOS 10, it morphed into a card-like design with a white background, and separated into three separate cards accessible by swiping horizontally. The first card consisted of main device controls, such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Do Not Disturb, while the second page was dedicated to media controls, and the third page for controlling HomeKit enabled devices linked in the Home application. The Control Center received a significant redesign in iOS 11, unifying its different pages into one and allowing users to 3D Touch the icons for additional options, and vertical sliders allow users to adjust volume and brightness. The Control Center is customizable via the Settings app, and allows for a wider range of settings features to be shown, including cellular service, Low Power Mode, and a shortcut to the Notes app. These changes are still present in the current stable release of iOS 12. iOS 12 brought few new additions to Control Center, but of them, the most notable being updates to Do Not Disturb. Now, when users 3D Touch, or long press the Do Not Disturb icon, it allows them to automatically set when a Do Not Disturb session will end. Current options include setting it to turn off after one hour, when leaving your current location, the next morning, or when a calendar event ends.
Reception
Control Center has received generally positive reviews. In contrast for the user having to access the Settings application to change most preferences, Darrell Etherington of TechCrunch thought that "separating from that function and making it accessible throughout the iOS user interface via a simple swipe up from bottom is a really big improvement." The iOS 11 update was criticized for changing the way the buttons for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth work; more specifically, the toggles would disconnect devices from Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, while leaving the radios on. The Electronic Frontier Foundation stated that this change not only hurt battery life, but was also bad for security, describing the buttons as turning Wi-Fi and Bluetooth "off-ish", as well as further criticizing the connections resuming at 5:00 am everyday.
