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Get the iOS Control Center on your Mac

This third-party app will put the Control Center you know and love from iOS on your Mac's desktop for easier access to all your most important settings.

Taylor Martin CNET Contributor
Taylor Martin has covered technology online for over six years. He has reviewed smartphones for Pocketnow and Android Authority and loves building stuff on his YouTube channel, MOD. He has a dangerous obsession with coffee and is afraid of free time.
Taylor Martin
2 min read
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Taylor Martin/CNET

On iPhones and iPads, swiping up from the bottom edge of the screen, from anywhere within the operating system, unveils a panel of quick settings toggles for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Do Not Disturb, Night Shift, volume, brightness, Airplane Mode and more.

Officially, the closest thing to you can get to that on a Mac are settings toggles in the menu bar. But a third-party app called Command Center puts the Control Center you know and love on your iOS devices on your Mac.

It looks almost identical to Control Center, though some settings from mobile devices -- like flashlight or the camera shortcut -- are swapped out for more logical toggles for a computer, such as shortcuts for Log Out, Restart, Shut Down and hiding desktop icons. It has sliders for brightness and volume, music controls and toggles for Do Not Disturb, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, a Night Shift- or f.lux-like mode that adjusts the temperature of your computer's display either manually or automatically.

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You can also drag and drop files into the section titled File Drop to get quick access to them without cluttering up your desktop.

There are two themes to choose from -- light or dark -- and tucked away behind a second tab is an activity monitor that shows CPU, RAM, network and battery usage and condition.

The best part, though, is how it's accessed. By default, the center is hidden off screen. If you want, you can click the menu bar icon to show the app. But a faster and easier way to access it is to slide your cursor toward the edge of the screen, either right or left, depending on your personal preference, and Command Center will appear.

The app will set you back $9.99 (about £7.50 or AU$13), which might give some potential buyers pause. That's a lofty price tag for something so simple. But I've been using it for several days now and I've found it's quite a bit faster than using the menu bar shortcuts for quick toggles. Whether that's worth a tenner or not is up to you to decide.