Control Center is one of my favorite new features in iOS 7. Apple essentially took the old pop-up music controls and added heaps of extra functionality, and it’s a very welcome change. One great feature of the old-style pop-up music controls was the button that would take you to whichever app was playing audio.
However, in Control Center no such button appears, leading some to believe that this functionality is no longer there. Thankfully, it’s still there. It’s just less apparent how one does it and how to affectively do it. Here’s how.
First, you’ll need to have some “background audio” playing from an app. This can be something like music from the Music app, a podcast, etc. In fact, the audio can even be paused for this to work. It just needs to show up in Control Center. Next, swipe up from the bottom of your iDevice’s screen to reveal Control Center.
Because there’s no button, it’s not entirely clear what exactly you should be tapping, but I’ve gotten the best results by tapping the song/audio title at the far left- or right-hand side of the screen. If you got it right, you’ll be shuttled over to the corresponding app.
Control Center Music Controls
On a side note, I don’t think tips like these should need to be written. Apple has been getting into the habit of obscuring functionality for the sake of aesthetics, and that’s not good design. So let’s hope that this is a short-lived trend.