Following up on Control Center

Now that iOS 7 is out, let’s revisit my expectations for Control Center. I don’t use everything available but here’s my thoughts on the ones I’ve used so far.

Flashlight

Love it. I use it several times a day and it’s way faster than any of the 3rd party apps were on iOS 6.

WiFi/Bluetooth

I don’t know why I put LTE in the original article but let’s pretend that didn’t happen. Having WiFi and Bluetooth easily accessible is incredibly handy and I’ve used it more times than I can count in the past week.

Music Controls

I don’t use these much since most of my interaction with the music controls happens on the lock screen. Still, it’s quite handy and I find myself using it randomly. What I use most often is the volume control as I like to keep my phone volume very low unless I’m watching something.

AirDrop

I really didn’t give this much thought in the original article and once I upgraded my 4S I still didn’t care because it doesn’t seem to be available on that device. Now that I have a 5s and my wife has a 5c, we’ve used it several times to transfer pictures to each other. It’s incredibly handy although a bit slow in finding phones to share with.

Camera

I use to keep the stock camera on my home screen but this lets me keep it hidden in a folder. I generally activate the camera from the lock screen but for those times where I’m already doing something, quick access to the camera is delightful.

I wish Apple had allowed the bottom 4 buttons of the Control Center to be customized, I don’t find myself reaching for the calculator or timer all that often and I’d love to swap those out. But all in all, I feel the Control Center was a much needed addition that has a lot of potential for future changes. Maybe one day I’ll get my wish and some or all of the actions will be configurable.