How to use Control Center widgets

Starting with iOS 18, Apple lets third-party apps add Control Center widgets, small interactive tiles you can place in Control Center, on the Lock Screen, or on the Action Button. Book Tracker provides 17 of them, covering the Reading Timer and instant shortcuts into almost every section of your library.

This tutorial shows what’s available, how to add them, and what each one does.

Requirements

  • iOS 18 or iPadOS 18 or later. On older versions, Book Tracker’s Control Center widgets won’t appear in the gallery.
  • Book Tracker installed.
  • For widgets that need to choose a specific book or list, that item must already exist in your library.

The 17 widgets at a glance

There’s one toggle (turns something on/off) and 16 quick-open shortcuts (jump to a place in the app).

🔘 Toggle

Reading Timer

The only toggle. Tied to a specific book of your choosing that’s in Reading status.

Tap to start the timer; tap again to pause; tap again to resume.

It does not stop and save progress, for that you need to open the app (this is by design, so a single accidental tap can’t accidentally finish a session). Same logic applies on Apple Watch.

The icon changes with the state: a play icon when paused or not started, a pause icon when running. The label reads “Not started” / “Paused” / “Running”.

If you select a book that later moves out of Reading (you mark it as Read, or move it to To Read), the toggle won’t work until you reconfigure it. The app will tell you with a dialog.

💡 Audiobook caveat: the Reading Timer Toggle doesn’t work for audiobooks (books tracked by Time). Pick a Pages or Percentage book.

📂 Open List

WidgetWhat it opens
Open ListOne of 8 predefined sections: All, Library, Wishlist, Not Owned, To Read, Reading, Read, DNF. You pick which one when configuring.
Open Currently Reading BookJumps straight to your current read. No configuration needed, it picks the first book in Reading automatically.

🛠 Quick actions

WidgetWhat it opensConfiguration
Scan book barcodeThe barcode scanner (camera)None
Search book onlineThe online book searchNone

🏷️ Open a specific entity

These all open the list of books for the entity you select during configuration:

WidgetWhat you select
Open TagOne of your Tags (uses the Tag’s color)
Open AuthorAn author from your library
Open TranslatorA translator
Open IllustratorAn illustrator
Open NarratorA narrator
Open CategoryA category (genre)
Open PublisherA publisher
Open SeriesA series
Open LocationA location (top level of Positions)
Open BookcaseA bookcase
Open ShelfA shelf
Open Smart ListOne of your Smart Lists

Each widget asks you to pick the specific item the first time you tap it after adding it. After that, the widget always opens the same place.

How to add a Control Center widget

The procedure is the same standard iOS one for any app:

  1. From any screen, swipe down from the top-right corner to open Control Center.
  2. Tap the + icon in the top-left to enter edit mode.
  3. Tap Add a control at the bottom.
  4. Scroll through the gallery, or use the search bar at the top, to find Book Tracker.
  5. Tap the widget you want to add. Resize it by dragging its corner if you want a bigger version.
  6. For widgets with a parameter (most of them), tap the widget once after adding it, Book Tracker will prompt you to pick the specific book, tag, series, etc.
  7. Tap anywhere outside the edit mode to save.

You can also assign any of these widgets to:

  • The Lock Screen controls (the two slots next to the flashlight and camera).
  • The Action Button on iPhone 15 Pro and later, a single press launches the action.

Putting it all together — practical setups

A few combinations that work well in real life.

Setup 1: “I just want to start reading”

In Control Center:

  • Reading Timer Toggle (configured for the book you’re currently focused on)
  • Open Currently Reading Book

One tap to start the timer, another tap to jump straight into the book if you want to log a manual entry instead.

Setup 2: “I want to add new books quickly”

In Control Center:

  • Scan book barcode
  • Search book online

Two taps to either method, much faster than opening the app and navigating to the + button.

Setup 3: “I have a few different reading projects”

In Control Center, four Open Tag widgets, each configured for a different tag:

  • Comfort reads
  • Reading group
  • Research
  • Long-term reads

Each tap takes you directly to the relevant Smart List of books, better than scrolling the Home or Sidebar every time.

Setup 4: “I want my Action Button to start reading”

On iPhone 15 Pro and later, set the Action Button to the Reading Timer Toggle configured for whatever you’re reading. A long press from anywhere, even from outside the app, starts or pauses your reading session.

What a Control Center widget cannot do (yet)

Apple’s Control Center widgets are intentionally simple, one action per tap. Specifically, a Book Tracker control:

  • Cannot show dynamic information (the toggle does, but no chart or list).
  • Cannot directly perform multi-step actions like “stop the timer, save progress, mark the book as read”.
  • The Reading Timer Toggle cannot stop and save, by design (see above).

For richer widgets, see How to customize your app with Widgets — Home Screen widgets show statistics, quotes, and current progress.

Best practices

  • The Reading Timer Toggle is the killer feature of Control Center for this app. Every reader who tracks time should have it set up.
  • Open Smart List is a power-user weapon: combine it with a useful Smart List and you have a curated reading view at one tap.
  • The widgets with parameters all have a generic “Select Book”, “Select Tag”, etc. label until you configure them. Tap them right after adding to set the parameter, otherwise nothing happens.
  • iPad and iPhone keep their Control Center setups separate, set them up on both.