Apple this week previewed iOS 15, which is available now in beta for developers ahead of a public release later this year. One smaller but useful new feature added is the ability to drag and drop images, text, files, and more across apps on iPhone.
MacStories editor-in-chief Federico Viticci demonstrated the new feature in a tweet:
Using cross-app drag and drop on iPhone in iOS 15. Finally 🎉 #WWDC21 pic.twitter.com/1RbyPBGfcq — Federico Viticci (@viticci) June 7, 2021
From the iOS 15 features page on Apple's website:
Drag and drop
With support for drag and drop across apps, you can pick up images, documents, and files from one app and drag them into another.
To drag and drop on iOS 15, long press on an image, text, or file and, without lifting that finger, use a second finger to swipe out of the app and open another app. Then, let go of the image, text, or file to drop it into the other app. Long pressing on content makes it appear to rise and adhere to your finger, and as the content is dragged, animations and visual cues identify possible destinations where the content can be dropped.
In many apps, you can drag a single item with one finger, and while dragging, select additional items by tapping them with another finger. The selected items move together and appear stacked beneath the finger that's dragging the original item. You can then drag the items as a group and drop them into another app.
The first beta of iOS 15 was seeded to developers earlier this week, and the software update should be released for all compatible iPhones in September.
Top Rated Comments
edit: Cross-app drag and drop has been available on the iPad since 2017
i didn’t know this was a thing either!
iOS 7 was when it started to change. With features being hidden and placement being unintuitive.
Now so much seems to require a Google search to learn or poking around through tons of menus. Then much else I don't even know I'm missing out on. Unless I happen to come across it in a post.
A large part of that is feature creep. Everythings more complex. Which makes it harder to make everything intuitive.
A lot also has to do with minimalism or anti-skeumorphism. Making things less apparent. The most aggravating thing is when they move a function or command to another category or menu. For example adding mail accounts to settings has changed locations multiple times. To different headings.