How to customize the Control Center on macOS Big Sur
macOS Big Sur has a Control Center which mimics the feature of the same name on iOS. It is a panel of quick toggles that allow you to, among other things, change the brightness and volume of your Mac, and control music.
Much like the Control Center on iOS, the Control Center on Big Sur only houses toggles that are from the system i.e., at present, third-party apps cannot add anything to it. Users can customize which toggles, buttons, and controls appear in the Control Center which means you can remove anything you don’t find useful.
Customize Control Center on Big Sur
The Control Center on Big Sur can be accessed from a switch icon on the menu bar. When you click it, it opens to reveal the toggles, sliders, and buttons that are enabled. You can then use them to control the Mac.
To change, add, or remove controls from the Control Center, follow these steps.
- Open the System Preferences on your Mac.
- Go to the Dock and Menu Bar preference.
- In the column on the left, select the module you want to enable or disable. If you do not see a particular module, scroll down to the other modules section (1).
- Enable the ‘Show in Control Center’ option to add a module to the Control Center (2).
- Disable the ‘Show in Control Center’ option to hide a module from the Control Center.
- The preview on the right (3) will show you where on the Control Center the module is positioned.
Using Control Center on Big Sur
To use the Control Center, follow these steps.
- On the Menu bar, click the Control Center icon.
- Select the module/toggle you want to use.
- Click, drag, or select the options under the module.
Note: not all modules will present the same type of options e.g., the WiFi module can enable/disable WiFi whereas the battery module reports current battery percentage and if you click it, will give you power-related information about your Mac.
Conclusion
The Control Center does not prevent users from adding icons directly to the menu bar. In fact, WiFi, Bluetooth, Volume, and Battery icons can still be added to it and the controls work just as well as they did before. In fact, they’ve gotten a UI overhaul. That does make some of the toggles in the Control Center redundant so you can either clean up the icons on the menu bar, or you can remove them from the Control Center.
