Control Center

Control Center is the grid of widgets in the menu bar panel. You choose what it shows: live traffic, the last 24 hours, what was blocked, DNS, your profile and more. It can also open in a window of its own.

The widgets

There are fourteen widgets. Each comes in three sizes: Small (one cell), Wide (two cells side by side) and Large (two by two).

Widget	Small	Wide	Large
Live Rate	Current upload and download rates.	The rates beside a small traffic chart.	Upload and download dials, with a traffic chart below. Each dial compares the last minute with that direction’s 48-hour peak. If peak readings are unavailable, it shows the rates, chart and traffic split instead.
Rate History	A chart of the last 60 minutes.	The chart with time labels and a peak rate.	A taller chart with a sent/received legend, time labels and a peak rate.
Sent · Last 24 Hours	Bytes sent.	The total beside an hourly chart when available.	The total, breakdown rows and hourly chart when available.
Received · Last 24 Hours	Bytes received.	The total beside an hourly chart when available.	The total, breakdown rows and hourly chart when available.
Total · Last 24 Hours	Sent and received together, with their split.	The total beside an hourly chart when available.	The total, sent/received breakdown and hourly chart when available.
Blocked · Last 24 Hours	Blocked connections and a bar split by cause.	The count, a ring chart and cause labels.	The count, each cause’s count and share, and an hourly chart. The causes are a rule, a blocklist, an alert answer and other.
DNS Encryption	The encrypted DNS status.	The status plus how many lookups bypassed encrypted DNS and how many apps sent them in the last 24 hours.	The same details with an hourly chart. If lookup data is unavailable, the larger sizes show the status instead.
Profile	The active profile and mode, with a shared menu to change them.	Separate profile and mode controls side by side.	Separate profile and mode controls stacked vertically.
Recently Blocked	The latest blocked destination, with its app’s icon, and when it was blocked.	Up to two connection rows.	Up to four connection rows.
Active Apps	The leading app, with its current rate while it is sending or receiving.	One app row and an icon strip for other apps.	Up to four app rows with bars showing their relative traffic. For an app with a data budget, the bar shows how much of the budget it has used.
Trackers Blocked · Last 24 Hours	The blocked tracker attempt count (the number of known-tracker blocks when there is no attempt data) and, when available, a ring showing the proportion of tracker attempts blocked.	The count, ring and a sentence giving blocked and total tracker attempts.	The same summary plus up to three apps with blocked tracker attempts. Without tracker attempt data, the wide and large sizes show the tracker share of all blocks instead.
Destinations · Last 24 Hours	A map.	A map beside the number of places you connected to (up to 32) and how many of them had only blocked connections.	A map, legend and up to three top countries with connection counts.
Alerts	The pending count and, when available, a Times out in countdown.	The count and one alert row.	The count, up to three alert rows and Answer… to open the alerts.
Focus Status	Whether alerts are silenced by a Focus, with an end time when available.	The status with more detail about when alerts resume.	The same status and detail with more space.

The 24-hour widgets use the traffic and connection history saved on your Mac. If connection history is off, the widgets that need it say so. When a figure isn’t available, a widget says that instead of showing zero.

In the wide and large sizes, Active Apps, Recently Blocked and Alerts use the same row layout for the app icon, name, details and value. Alert rows show the time remaining and an Allow or Deny symbol for the timeout action. Use Answer… in the large Alerts widget to answer.

In the wide and large sizes, the Allow menu in Recently Blocked and the Deny menu in Active Apps make a temporary rule: For 5 minutes or Until logout. A priority rule you already have can still take precedence, and the widget says so. Other connection rows have a menu to copy details, or to open the connection or its rule.

Rate History puts received traffic above the line and sent traffic below it. In Rate History, move the pointer over the chart to read the rates at a moment. The chart also works with the keyboard and VoiceOver, and you can open that moment in the Network Monitor.

Editing the layout

Click Edit (labelled Edit Widgets for accessibility). Then:

• Add Widget… opens a gallery of every widget with a live preview. Pick a widget and a size, then click Add Widget. You can add the same widget more than once.
• Drag a widget to move it. Right-click a widget, or use its size menu, to change its size, move it up or down, or remove it.
• Widget Options › Reset to Default…, then Reset, brings back the starting layout: small Live Rate and Blocked widgets, wide Destinations and Recently Blocked widgets, and large Active Apps.
• Undo and Redo restore layout changes made by adding, removing, resizing or moving widgets.

Click Done to finish. The layout is shared by the panel and the Control Center window.

With VoiceOver or the keyboard, each widget has actions to move it, resize it and remove it.

In its own window

Choose Widget Options › Open in Separate Window to open Control Center as a separate panel you can move and keep open. In that window, turn on Widget Options › Float on Top to keep it above other windows. The window remembers where you put it.

To open and close Control Center from the keyboard, record a shortcut next to Toggle Control Center in Settings › Menu Bar. There is no shortcut until you record one.

Rule Sounds

The Rule Sounds switch at the top turns rule sounds on or off. Its menu has Mute for 1 Hour, and Resume Rule Sounds while they are muted.

Appearance

On macOS 26 and later, Control Center uses Liquid Glass. On macOS 14 and 15 it uses the standard translucent material. It follows Reduce Transparency in System Settings › Accessibility › Display.