Select Faster on iPhone With This Two-Finger Trick

[alexlc1]

Ugh, came to echo the same sentiments about it not working when deleting attachments from iMessage through the iPhone Storage menu in settings. Dear sweetttttt baby Jesus, Apple. Can we get at LEAST get a 'Select All' option?!

 

[ifxf]

They need to have an instruction manual provided with each ios device. The two I nominate are the swipe to delete a bad calculator entry but they have lots of space to include a backspace entry button and the press to hold to paste a number in the phone app.

 

[heisalso]

“Two-finger trick? Sweetheart, that’s not a tech tip, that’s my ideal Saturday night.” - Mae West on the iPhone's two-finger gesture

 

[Saturn007]

Two-finger, hold-and-drag to select works so well in Photos!

/s

LOL! 😂 It doesn’t even work if you tap Select first!

What does work in Photos — selecting an item first and then dragging — is tricky to execute and quite inconsistent.

Just tested the two-finger hold-and-drag in Pages and Numbers — where it also fails!

Then, I discovered that the article left out a critical point — the items must be displayed in LIST view. It does not work in icon view, which many of us prefer. Alas, there is no List view in Photos!

P.S. Whether any of that has changed in iPad OS18, I don't know as I’m holding off upgrading.

 

[cmcnick]

Just a point. You don’t need to drag with two fingers to multi-select once the multi-select option pops up.

 

[coolfactor]

It works. Actually two gestures work:

Assuming you are already on the grid showing multiple photos in iMessage.
You have clicked on the 'Select' or 'Edit' button (I'm on another language, so I don't know the actual term)

1) Tap on a photo with two fingers, stay for a second, and then drag from there.

2) Tap on a photo with one finger, and immediately drag from there (with one finger).

Tried this in Messages, but doesn't work for me. Need to tap each photo individually.

This is the Photos list associated with a contact. Are you talking about somewhere else?

 

[yossi]

Doesn't work on voicemails

 

[August West]

I enjoy these tips. Most people know them already but some of us don't.

 

[t0rqx]

Just imagine that we're on iOS freaking 18. We had at least 100 releases of iOS updates so far! And you still can't select and delete multiple attachments in iMessage. Nice.

You have no idea how much computing power these gestures need. Every new gesture introduced needs a new gen chip that comes out every year.

Its what keeps the upgrade cycle going...

 

[t0rqx]

I enjoy these tips. Most people know them already but some of us don't.

Yeah very rare to see these articles but these are the ones that really matter.

 

[ApAx]

Based on this comment thread so far, the actual steps seem to be:

1. Open an App that for some inexplicable reason does not support multi-select

2. Place two fingers on the screen over the items you'd like to select

3. Unpredictable behavior ensues.

Very first thing I tried, before reading any comments, was iMessage, and I sighed in unsurprised disappointment.

 

[tennisproha]

Would be nice if you could do this on macOS with the trackpad

 

[klasma]

They need to have an instruction manual provided with each ios device.

There is the iPhone User Guide (and similar for iPad etc.). There also used to be a downloadable PDF version, but they seem to have scrapped that. The User Guide is pretty bad, it is missing a lot of details and explanations. The instructions are very barebones, and it doesn’t show screenshots. There is no mention of selection by two-finger swipe.

 

[stevefeinstein]

Just imagine that we're on iOS freaking 18. We had at least 100 releases of iOS updates so far! And you still can't select and delete multiple attachments in iMessage. Nice.

Have you submitted feedback directly to Apple. They actually do read them and once in a rare I see the things I've asked about show up in the OS. (www.apple.com/feedback)

 

[hokuspokus]

I learned something useful. Thank you.

 

[scorpio vega]

Posting to try this again later bc I have never got it to work properly

 

[california_kid]

Well I'll be! This story gets a two thumbs up!

 

[Parowdy]

It’s a real shame Apple doesn’t communicate that these gestures, including the copy and paste ones, exist good enough.
Just as shameful as them not having a back swipe gesture like on Android, or at least a streamlined gesture that works everywhere.

 

[Parowdy]

Just imagine that we're on iOS freaking 18. We had at least 100 releases of iOS updates so far! And you still can't select and delete multiple attachments in iMessage. Nice.

What exactly do you mean? Holding an image and tapping More lets you select any text message and picture for me, I can then delete them. However I don’t know about videos or files.

 

[Parowdy]

Try it

I did. It didn’t work just doing it in a chat or after holding and tapping More.

 

[Parowdy]

I'd like to see you use it all the time, because I'm pretty much 100% sure it doesn't work. Go on and select 20 images from the conversation attachments, let me know how it goes.

I just went ahead and tried it just to be sure you're not pulling my leg, and as I said, you have to tap and select each picture individually. No gestures work here, you simply can't select more than one picture at a time.

You can. Hold and tap More.
However that doesn’t work in grid view.

 

[mickobizzle]

.

 

[mickobizzle]

.

 

[svish]

It is a good and useful feature. Only problem is that not many apps support it. Would have been good if it is made available everywhere.

 

[Peregrine147]

I didn't know this one, now to try and remember it... 😂