← All tips

Put the controls you use most in the menu bar

Bluetooth, AirDrop and the rest can sit permanently at the top right instead of two clicks deep.

Control Centre is the icon with two switches at the top right of the screen. Click it and you get Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, AirDrop, sound and brightness.

If you use one of them constantly, it does not have to stay in there. Open System Settings → Menu Bar and scroll to Menu Bar Controls: tick the box next to an item and it gets its own icon at the top of the screen. Bluetooth and AirDrop are the usual candidates — one for headphones, the other for sending a file to a phone without cables.

Taking one out is a matter of unticking it in the same list. Icons added from Control Centre itself come out another way: click Control Centre, choose Edit Controls and drag the icon off the bar.

The bar fills up fast, so be selective; on a laptop with a notch there is less room than it looks.

The same panel has Battery Options, for the percentage next to the battery icon, and Clock Options, for how the date and time are shown.

On macOS Sequoia and earlier, the panel is called Control Centre.


Related tips