How to Drag and Drop Files, Photos and Videos on iPhone: This hidden feature allows you to drag and drop between your apps.

In iOS 15 and iPhone, you can drag files, links, or other text from one app to another. Here’s how.

The release of iOS 15 finally made drag and drop available on the iPhone, a feature that’s been around on the iPad for years thanks to the multitasking features of iPadOS 15. That being said, the feature wasn’t really used when that major release for the iPhone came out last year. In fact, you may not be familiar with it.

With drag and drop on iPhone, you can easily move content between apps. In a few seconds, you can move a dozen photos to send a text message or insert a link in an email. In the guide below, we’ll show you everything you need to know about this new feature coming with iOS 15.

How to Drag Photos and Videos to iPhone

The first way to use drag and drop on iOS is to move images from one app to another. This option works with any app that allows you to long press on an image to share it, such as Photos, Safari, Twitter, and more. In this example, we’ll start with our own Photos app.

1. Open the Photos app.
2. In grid view, long press on a photo or video until the quick action menu appears, then move your finger to move it all under your finger.
3. If you want to add more photos, tap the corresponding photos or videos with another finger, they will be added automatically.
4. Use another finger to exit the app and navigate to where you want to put them.
5. You will then see a green + icon in the corner of the photo or video if you can drop it.
6. Release your finger to drag the photo or video.

For example, you can drag a photo to the Mail app and add it as an attachment to the Messages app to quickly send it.

How to drag files to iPhone

Files that are in your Files app—PDF, WAV, MP4, PNG, and so on—can also be moved from Files to other apps like Messages or Mail if you want to share them, or to another app for file management.

1. Open the Files app.
2. On the life icon or in the list, press and hold a file until the quick action menu appears, and move your finger without releasing the screen so that the file follows your finger.
3. Use another finger to exit the File app and switch to another app.
4. Wait until a green + icon appears, which means you can drag the file here. Then release your finger to do so.

If you’re already using the Files app, it’s faster to share files using a text message or email.

How to drag and drop links on iPhone

As with photos, you can drag and drop links from apps like Safari, Calendar, and more. Again, you need to be able to hold down a link from the quick actions menu to be able to use drag and drop. Here’s how to do it from Safari.

1. Open Safari.
2. Press and hold the link until the quick action menu appears and move your finger so that the link follows your finger.
3. Use another finger to exit the app and release the screen to close it – only if you see a green + – icon.

You can drag and drop links to other apps such as Messages, Mail, Notes, or social media apps, for example.

How to drag text on iPhone

Finally, you can drag any selected text to another application.

1. First, find the text you want to drag.
2. Use your finger to select text just as if you were copying it.
3. While holding the selection, move your finger without releasing the screen until you see this text following your finger.
4. Use another finger to exit the app and drag it to another location.

While copy and paste might be a better (and even faster) option, you do have the ability to drag and drop it on iOS.

If you prefer a visual explanation, Frederico Viticci, editor of MacStories, has tweeted a series of videos demonstrating the feature.