Control Center has long been a handy feature on iPhone, giving you quick access to essential controls. iOS 18 took it to the next level, with deeper customization across multiple pages.
Even better, third-party apps can get in on the action, seamlessly integrating with Control Center by way of their own widgets that provide instant access to features and information.
Editing Control Center widgets.
In this round-up, we’ll cover iPhone apps we love that have their own Control Center widgets (that we love too). Before that, though, a quick reminder about how to add and edit Control Center widgets:
- Open Control Center: drag down from the top-right corner of your iPhone display.
- Navigate pages: Swipe up/down or tap the buttons on the strip at the right of the screen.
- Start editing: Tap the ‘+’ button and then ‘Add a Control’.
- Add a widget: Scroll through the list or use search. Tap an item to add it.
- Configure settings: If the widget provides options, define them when the panel appears.
- Resize a widget: Use the drag handle to widen any widget that could benefit from a text label.
- Exit edit mode: Tap anything that isn’t a widget to stop editing.
In edit mode, you can also tap existing widgets to change their settings, or tap a ‘-’ button to remove the widget. Also be mindful that if widgets from a newly installed app don’t appear in the widgets list, you may need to launch the app and then return to Control Center. If the issue persists, try restarting your iPhone.
The best Control Center widgets for iPhone
Bear and Book Tracker widget options.
Bear (free + $29.99/£29.99 per year) provides an alternative to Apple Notes with an emphasis on flexibility and great-looking output. It has widgets for creating different note types and firing up search.
Book Tracker (free + $15.99/£14.99) is ideal for keeping tabs on reading habits. It offers widgets for actions including starting a reading timer, opening a specific virtual book shelf, and launching the app’s barcode scanner.
Cheatsheet (free + $5.99/£5.99 per year) keeps bite-sized nuggets of important info within easy reach. Using a widget, you can place the likes of door codes and telephone extension numbers right inside Control Center itself.
Dark Noise (free + $19.99/£19.99 per year) is a stylish noise generator to help you mask distractions when working or trying to sleep. The Control Center widget lets you start a user-defined noise with a set duration.
Drafts (free + $19.99/£19.99 per year) calls itself a launching-off point for text – a place to capture text and then figure out what to do with it. Its sole widget lets you access a slew of Drafts commands and items.
Focus (free or $39.99/£35.99 per year) helps you to better track your time and concentrate on tasks. Its widgets further remove distractions, by letting you start, reset, skip and extend a focus session – or create a new task.
Longplay ($5.99/£5.99) is a superb opinionated music player app that prioritizes albums over individual songs. Old-school! It has a sole Control Center button, but it’s a good one: album shuffle.
Setting options for the Lumy widget.
Lumy ($6.99/£6.99) tracks daylight, providing insight into sunrise, sunset, and photographer-friendly golden hours. Its widgets let you trigger countdowns or notifications to defined events.
Sofa (free or $29.99/£29.99 per year) gives you a central place to jot down what you’d like to watch, read, play and listen to during your free time. Its widgets get you to lists, pinned items, and default dumping ground ‘the pile’.
Shortcuts (free) lets you build automations you can run with a tap. The app’s widgets let you launch a shortcut, but Apple also adds a second widget you can set to launch any installed app.
Streaks ($5.99/£5.99) is our favorite iPhone app for helping you form good habits (and ditch bad ones). Its Control Center widgets let you mark a specific task as done or kick off a timed task.
Things 3 ($9.99/£9.99) powers up task management, helping you to get things done. Its widgets further streamline the process, jumping you straight to item entry or specific lists, optionally filtered by tags.
Ulysses ($39.99/£39.99 per year) is a writing app for quickly jotting down ideas as sheets and then combining them into larger pieces. Widgets get you instantly to a new sheet or your most recent one, along with search.
Widgetsmith (free or $19.99/£19.99 per year) enables you to make your own custom widgets. For Control Center, these can include buttons to trigger calls, view weather details, play albums and launch websites.