How to Customize the iOS 26 Control Center: Pages, Sizes, and Third-Party Controls

The Control Center used to be a fixed grid you swiped down to and tolerated. Since the Control Center overhaul that landed with iOS 18 and carried into iOS 26's Liquid Glass redesign, it is a fully customizable surface: multiple pages, resizable controls, hundreds of Apple toggles, and third-party options from your apps. If you have never edited it, you are leaving a lot of speed on the table. Here is how to make it yours.

Key takeaways

• You can create multiple Control Center pages, connectivity, media, smart home, and more, and swipe between them.
• Controls are resizable: drag a handle to make a toggle larger or shrink it back to a square.
• iOS 26 exposes hundreds of Apple controls plus third-party controls from installed apps.
• The new Liquid Glass look gives Control Center a translucent appearance with optional tinting.
• Editing mode is reached with the plus button or a long-press on an empty area.

Entering edit mode

Everything starts the same way.

1. Swipe down from the top-right corner to open Control Center.

2. Tap the plus (+) button in the upper-left corner, or touch and hold an empty spot.

3. The grid enters editing mode, controls wiggle, and an Add a Control button appears.

Adding, removing, and resizing controls

Once you are in edit mode, the layout is yours to shape.

• Add a control: Tap Add a Control, browse or search the gallery, and tap the one you want. Apple's catalog runs into the hundreds, and apps you have installed can contribute their own.
• Remove a control: Tap the minus (-) badge on a toggle to delete it.
• Resize a control: Drag the corner handle. Many controls can be stretched into larger tiles or pulled back to a square. There are limits, you cannot, for example, stretch the Calculator across four horizontal slots, but most controls flex.

The gestures map to badges and handles that appear once you are in edit mode. Here is the quick reference:

Goal	Action	Where
Enter edit mode	Tap + (top-left) or long-press empty space	Anywhere in Control Center
Add a control	Tap Add a Control, search or browse, tap one	Bottom of the editing view
Remove a control	Tap the - badge on the control	Top-left corner of each tile
Resize a control	Drag the bottom-right corner handle	Visible while editing
Move a control	Touch and drag it	Within or across pages
New page	Drag a control past the bottom of the current page	Edit mode

Working with multiple pages

The biggest structural change is pages. You can build several, each dedicated to a purpose.

• Create a page by dragging a control to the bottom until a new page forms, or by adding controls beyond what fits on the current one.
• Navigate pages three ways: swipe up and down inside Control Center, tap the small page icons on the right edge, or hold a finger on those icons and scrub through them.
• By default Apple sets up pages for essential controls, media, connectivity, and smart home accessories.

Use this to separate concerns. A media page with playback, AirPlay, and volume; a connectivity page with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, VPN, and Personal Hotspot; a home page with your most-used HomeKit scenes.

Reassign the Lock Screen controls too

The same control gallery feeds two other spots worth customizing. On the Lock Screen, the two bottom-corner buttons (flashlight and camera by default) can be swapped: touch and hold the Lock Screen, tap Customize, choose Lock Screen, then tap a corner button's - badge and pick a different control from the same gallery. Separately, the iPhone 16 and 17 lineup's Action button and the Camera Control can trigger controls or Shortcuts, so a control you like in Control Center can often become a physical button press instead of a swipe.

The Liquid Glass look

In iOS 26, Control Center adopts the system-wide Liquid Glass material, translucent panels that pick up color from the content behind them. If the clear look is too busy for you, the tinted option increases opacity for better legibility. You will find the toggle alongside the other display and appearance settings. For the broader design story, see our iOS 26 Liquid Glass overview, which covers the same material across Apple's platforms, and the June feature drop roundup for how rivals are iterating.

What to do right now

Five minutes here pays off every day. Try this:

• Swipe down from the top-right, tap +, and enter edit mode.
• Enlarge your three most-used controls (flashlight, focus, screen recording) on page one.
• Tap Add a Control and search for a power tool you forgot existed, like Dark Mode, Low Power Mode, or a Shortcut.
• Drag a few controls past the bottom to create a dedicated media page and a connectivity page (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, VPN, Hotspot).
• Long-press the Lock Screen and swap the camera or flashlight corner button for something you reach for more.
• If the translucent look is hard to read, switch on the tinted option in appearance settings.

Frequently asked questions

How many Control Center pages can I make?

You can create multiple pages, well beyond the default set, each holding its own arrangement of controls.

Can third-party apps add their own controls?

Yes. Developers can ship controls that appear in the Add a Control gallery once their app is installed.

Why won't a control resize the way I want?

Some controls have size restrictions. You can usually make a square or a larger tile, but certain wide layouts are not allowed for every control.

How do I reset Control Center to default?

Remove the controls you added and re-add Apple's defaults, or restore from a backup. There is no single one-tap reset.

Does customizing Control Center affect battery?

No meaningfully. The controls are shortcuts; arranging them does not change background activity.

Can I add a Shortcut to Control Center?

Yes. In the Add a Control gallery, look for the Shortcuts controls. Once added, the control runs your chosen Shortcut with a single tap, turning Control Center into a launcher for your own automations.

Why is the top-right swipe opening Notification Center instead?

On Face ID iPhones, swiping down from the top-right corner opens Control Center, while swiping from the top-left or center opens Notification Center. If you keep getting the wrong one, start the swipe closer to the right edge, over the battery icon area.

Can I move the same control to the Action button?

Often, yes. Go to Settings > Action Button (on iPhone 15 Pro and later) and assign a control or a Shortcut. It is a fast way to make a Control Center favorite a physical press instead of a swipe and tap.