Drag and Drop Photos and Text Between iPhone Apps

 

How Does Drag and Drop Work

First, open an app that supports the feature. In this example, we’ll be dragging a photo from Safari to Mail, but the action is exactly the same for text, links, and other things.

We’ll start by holding a finger down on a photo until you feel a little vibration.

Keep your finger pressed on the screen and drag the photo—or whatever it is—until it floats. Don’t stop holding the selecting object.

Dragging a photo and text.

Now, with a different finger, you can navigate around the phone like you normally would. Keep the first finger pressed on the screen and use your other finger to open the destination.

Opening the multitasking screen while dragging a photo.

Release your finger when you’re ready to drop the object. 

Here’s another example. Grab a photo from the Photos app, go to the Home screen, open Messages, compose a new message, and drop the photo. Pretty slick.

The key is to “hold” the original object—whether it’s a photo, text selection, or link—with one finger and then navigate to the destination app with another finger. There’s no limitation to how you can navigate while holding the object.

This is an incredibly powerful productivity feature for iPhone users to know. Not having to download images and upload them to different apps or copy and paste text and links is a big time saver. As time goes on, more apps will support the feature, making it even better.