Find out how to use simple iOS shortcuts to turn on or turn off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on your iPhone without opening the Settings app or Control Center.
For starters, if you need to disable new Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections on your iPhone or iPad, just tap their buttons in Control Center. And if you want to turn them off completely, you must go to the Settings app or use the Siri voice assistant.
Accessing Control Center by swiping from the top right corner of the screen is not always comfortable for many people, especially those with small hands or during one-handed use. Similarly, going to iOS Settings or using Siri isn’t friction-free.
To address this, you can create simple Wi-Fi and Bluetooth shortcuts and add them to the Home Screen. After that, a simple tap will fully turn Wi-Fi or Bluetooth ON and OFF.
I have these buttons on my iPhone and iPad Home Screens for a while now, and I love using them!
1) Open the Apple Shortcuts app on your iOS device and tap the plus button in the Library section to create a new one.
2) Type Set Wi-Fi in the Search Actions box and add it to your build.
3) Tap ‘Turn’ and set it to Toggle so that running this shortcut will enable Wi-Fi when it’s off, and disable it when it’s already ON.
4) Tap the current shortcut name at the top and select Add to Home Screen. Pick an image or symbol and a color for this icon. You can also tap the current name and change it to something different. Then, tap Add.
5) You’ll now see a Wi-Fi shortcut on your iPhone or iPad Home Screen. Tap it to enable or disable Wi-Fi!
Unlike Wi-Fi, which shows an icon in the iOS status bar, the Bluetooth status isn’t shown at the top of your iPhone or iPad screen.
Therefore, if you build a simple ‘Toggle Bluetooth’ shortcut along the lines of the above-mentioned ‘Toggle Wi-Fi’ shortcut, you may not always be sure if Bluetooth was turned ON or OFF after you ran the shortcut from the Home Screen.
That’s why, for Bluetooth, I suggest creating two separate shortcuts: one to turn it ON and the other to turn it OFF. The steps for both are the same.
1) Go to the iPhone or iPad Shortcuts app and tap the plus button to create a new shortcut.
2) Search for Set Bluetooth and add it.
3) Leave the first shortcut as it is: Turn Bluetooth On. Then, add it to the Home Screen after renaming it to something like “Turn On BT” or “Bluetooth ON.”
4) Repeat steps 1 and 2 above. Then, tap ‘On’ to change it to Off. Now, add it again to your Home Screen. Make sure to name it something like “Turn Off BT” or “Bluetooth Off.”
5) You now have two Bluetooth icons on your Home Screen to enable or disable the said feature. Use them as required.
If you prefer a single shortcut
In case you don’t want two iOS shortcuts for Bluetooth on your iPhone or iPad Home Screen, change the ‘Turn’ condition to Ask Each Time (i.e., Operation). Then, add it to your Home Screen.
When you tap this Home Screen shortcut, it will show two options: Turn and Toggle:
- Toggle turns Bluetooth ON or OFF, as appropriate.
- Turn shows a slider at the top of the screen that lets you manually turn Bluetooth ON or OFF.
Depending on what you’re comfortable with, you can use one of the above setups. If you ask me, I have created two different Bluetooth shortcuts for simplicity.
One shortcut for both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
Additionally, you can combine the two shortcuts to toggle Wi-Fi and Bluetooth with one tap.
Which shortcut will you be using?
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