Control Center on iOS 18 Rumored to Feature Upgraded Music Widget and HomeKit Improvements

In a social media post last week, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said iOS 18 will include "updates" to Control Center, and he has now outlined a few specific changes.

iOS 18 Control Center Feature Iridescent 1
In the latest edition of his Power On newsletter on Sunday, Gurman said Control Center will feature an upgraded music widget and improved controls for HomeKit smart home accessories. However, he did not provide any further details about these changes, so all we know for now is these will apparently be two focus areas for Apple.

Apple will unveil iOS 18 during its WWDC keynote on June 10, and the first beta should be made available to members of the Apple Developer Program immediately following the presentation. The update should be widely released in September.

Related Roundups: iOS 18, iPadOS 18
Related Forums: iOS 18, iPadOS 18

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Top Rated Comments

CarAnalogy Avatar
11 months ago
Shouldn't be hard to improve on what is now kind of a baffling interface.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TwoBytes Avatar
11 months ago
A whole year for updated widgets?
I hope this isn't dramatised as big news; you're gonna love it, etc, as this is minimal effort for something so minor.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ignatius345 Avatar
11 months ago
HomeKit playback controls are long overdue for an update. As it currently stands, you have to root around to click the little button that enables you to control what’s playing on your HomePods. Not a great experience. Hopefully they just consolidate everything onto one screen.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Radeon85 Avatar
11 months ago
The control center is a mess of a UI and has been for years so anything will be a big improvement. The Homekit part of the control center is extremely annoying when my most used icons may disappear and barley used ones show up, and somehow I have no ability to control what homekit icons are shown on that UI.

It's a very poorly designed and cluttered mess of UI.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
rustygh Avatar
11 months ago
? Here's an idea, how about make access to the control center something usable, so it's actually a thing?

I'm saying I like it, it's just a super PITA to get there with pull down from top right?
There has to be a better way?

Give us at least accessibility triple click, add 'open control center' to accessibility shortcuts?

Look, I'm not asking, I'm letting you know, that is why control center is such a nothing burger, it's a PITA!
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ignatius345 Avatar
11 months ago

I have a library in Apple Music but don't subscribe, so can care less. And, I prefer actual switches in my house so don't care about HomeKit either ...
Cool, thanks for weighing in!
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)