How to View Extra Information from macOS Control Center

by Rian

With the introduction of iOS-like Control Center on macOS, many Menu Bar icons can now be hidden unless they are absolutely necessary. I have most of the icons hidden unless they are active. But there are times when having a similar level of access the older icons had are simply needed — such as what WiFi icon used to show when Option-click on it.

Solutions

Long story short, you can still Option-click on the Control Center’s modules, and keep the icons off from the Menu Bar. Both WiFi and Bluetooth show the extra tidbits a user may want: MAC address, PHY mode, and etc.

Afterthoughts

The same information is obviously available from System Information or via Terminal commands. No doubt there are also third-party apps with better visualizations as well. This trick is more or less focused on retaining the old feature while keeping it all organized under the new Control Center. Thankfully, compared to pre-iOS eras, both WiFi and Bluetooth have become stable enough and common enough where users are less likely to be hit with the connection issues.

Having said all that, I can’t shake the feeling the new Control Center still needs some UI amendments to indicate more verbose details are accessible from the modules. It’s also bizarre these information is not immediately accessible on System Settings, but only on System Information. Perhaps in the near future, the same information would be made visible on the System Settings.