Borrowing heavily from the design language of the iPhone and iPad, Apple introduced the Control Centre to macOS. By clicking the icon containing two small toggle switches in the top-right corner of your Menu Bar, a sleek drop-down panel appears, giving you instant access to your Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, AirDrop, display brightness, and volume sliders.
By default, the Control Centre is populated with Apple’s standard system toggles. However, you are not strictly limited to this default layout. You can customize the Control Centre to remove features you never use, add new productivity modules, or pin specific modules permanently to the Menu Bar for even faster access.
How to Customize the Control Centre
You cannot customize the layout by right-clicking directly on the Control Centre itself. You must use the primary system settings.
- Click the Apple Logo in the absolute top-left corner of your screen.
- Select System Settings (or System Preferences on older versions of macOS).
- In the left-hand sidebar, scroll down and click on Control Centre.
The main panel will now display a massive list of every single module available on the operating system, broken down into categories.
Adding and Removing Modules
Apple categorizes modules into two groups: “Control Centre Modules” (which cannot be completely removed, only adjusted) and “Other Modules” (which are entirely optional).
Scroll down to the Other Modules section. Here you will find incredibly useful tools such as:
- Accessibility Shortcuts (instantly toggle contrast, zoom, or VoiceOver).
- Battery (quickly check your MacBook’s remaining percentage or see which apps are draining power).
- Hearing (connect hearing aids or play background white noise).
- Fast User Switching (quickly swap between different accounts on a shared family Mac).
To add any of these to your layout, simply click the toggle switch next to Show in Control Centre so that it turns on (blue). When you click the Control Centre icon in your Menu Bar, the new module will immediately appear at the bottom of the grid.
How to Pin Modules to the Menu Bar
If you use a specific module constantly—such as the Bluetooth toggle to connect your wireless headphones—opening the Control Centre every single time adds an unnecessary step to your workflow.
You can drag any module directly out of the Control Centre and pin it to the top of your screen.
- Click the Control Centre icon in the top-right corner of your screen to open the panel.
- Click and hold your mouse down on the module you want to pin (for example, the “Bluetooth” button).
- Drag the module out of the Control Centre drop-down and pull it straight up onto the horizontal Menu Bar.
- Let go of the mouse button.
The module will become a permanent, standalone icon on your Menu Bar, allowing you to access Bluetooth settings with a single click. (You can also achieve this exact same result in the System Settings by turning on the “Show in Menu Bar” toggle next to any module).