After a period of living in the background of your mobile gaming sessions, Apple has completely redesigned Game Center for iOS 14. Here’s how it works.
What is Game Center?
Originally launching for iOS 4 way back in 2010, Game Center is a means to track your progress across the games you play on your iOS devices. It’s also a system for recording and comparing high scores with your friends, as well as setting up multiplayer sessions, the latter of which is achieved on a game-by-game basis.
How to access Game Center
Your progress in a game will be tied to Game Center automatically whenever you start it.
To access Game Center, head to Settings > Game Center, or pull down the universal Search bar from the home screen and type ‘Game Center’.
Change your Game Center profile
Navigate to Settings > Game Center and you’ll be able to change your nickname by tapping on the top Nickname field.
Tapping the circular image at the top will let you change your image, which acts as your avatar when friends check out your high scores.
Invite friends
Adding friends to your Game Center profile will let you compare high scores and initiate multiplayer games.
To add friends, head to Settings > Game Center and tap Add Friends. This will open up a new iMessage with a Game Center link. Just add the contact you want to add and send.
Just above this, Game Center will offer Friend Suggestions, so all you need to do is tap Invite to set up the necessary iMessage invitation.
View your achievements
Game Center collates all of the achievements you’ve gained across every iOS game that you’ve played.
Head to Settings > Game Center > Achievements by Game, and every game you’ve played will be listed in alphabetical order.
Tap on an entry to see which achievements you’ve unlocked, and which you still need to obtain.
Set your privacy profile
Would you like everyone to be able to see your activity in a game when they start it up? Or would you prefer that only your friends can do so?
Head to Settings > Game Center > Profile Privacy, and select which of these you prefer. You can even opt to hide your progress from everyone should you wish.