The all-new Control Center has made it much easier to take control of commonly used features like AirDrop, AirPlay, and even Accessibility Shortcuts in macOS Big Sur. Based on what works in line with your workflow, you can customize the Control Center on your Mac to keep only the useful items and remove the ones that aren’t needed. For greater flexibility, you can even pin Control Center items to the menu bar in macOS Big Sur to quickly access certain controls. Let me take you through the complete process!
Customize Control Center and Menu Bar in macOS Big Sur
Though I have always found the menu bar very user-friendly for accessing commonly used items, many a time I find it lacking for a couple of main reasons. For one, it doesn’t have much space to incorporate many items. And the other, it doesn’t offer much scope for customization. That’s the reason why I’m glad to see an iOS-style Control Center on macOS.
The control center can incorporate several controls. You can do things like quickly enable/disable the dark mode, take control of Accessibility Shortcuts, and even switch users right from the Control Center. Since there are many aspects of customization, we have divided this article into sections. You can click on the links below to move between the sections.
Pin Control Center Items to Menu Bar
1. Click on the Control Center icon at the top right corner of the screen.
2. Now, the Control Center panel will open with multiple items including Bluetooth, Do Not Disturb, AirDrop, Keyboard Brightness, AirPlay Display, Sound, and more. Select a specific item and then drop it at the desired place on the menu bar.
Note: You can also use the (⌘) Command key to adjust menu bar items on your Mac. While pressing the Command key, move the menu bar items.
Customize Control Center and Menu Bar Items
Further, macOS Big Sur comes with a Dock & Menu Bar preference pane that lets you show/hide controls. So, you can choose to display or conceal respective items to suit your needs better.
- Open System Preferences on your Mac (you can also click on the Apple menu at the top left corner -> System Preferences)
2. Now, click on Dock & Menu Bar.
3. Under the Control Center section, you should see the list of all the essential Control Center items like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, AirDrop, Do Not Disturb, Keyboard Brightness, AirPlay, Display, Sound, and Now Playing. These controls are always present in the Control Center.
You can click on the respective item and then check/uncheck the box to the left of “Show in Menu Bar” to add or remove it from the menu bar.
Show Accessibility Shortcuts in Control Center and Menu Bar
Under the “Other Control Center Mod…” section, click on Accessibility Shortcuts option. And then check the respective box to show the Accessibility Shortcuts in the menu bar or control center.
Show Battery/Percentage in Control Center and Menu Bar
Click on Battery located in the “Other Control Center Mod…” section. Now, check the boxes to show battery in the menu bar and control center.
It’s worth noting that the battery doesn’t show the percentage by default. However, you can choose to make it show the percentage. To do it, make sure to tick the box for Show Percentage.
Show User Switching Option in Control Center and Menu Bar
If you often have to dive into System Preferences to switch users, you would really appreciate the option to quickly switch users right from the control center or menu bar of your Mac.
Click on Fast User Switching located in the “Other Control Center Mod…” section and then tick the boxes to show the user switching option in the menu bar and control center.
Note:
- Do note that Spotlight and Siri are menu bar only controls. So, you can’t make them appear in the Control Center.
- As mentioned above, some essential controls like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth will always be present in the Control Center. You can remove only certain controls like Accessibility Shortcuts, user switching, and battery percentage from the control center.
Perfectly Customize Control Center in Line with Your Needs
There you go! So, that’s the way you can fine-tune Control Center as per your needs in macOS Big Sur. Recently, we have covered many notable topics related to the latest iteration of macOS. If you haven’t been able to catch up with them, do check them out.
- How to Use iMessage Effects in macOS Big Sur
- Customize Safari Start Page in macOS Big Sur
- How to Use Memoji in iMessage on macOS Big Sur
What’s your take on the Control Center for Mac? Is it a better implementation? Share your thoughts with us.
