Today I learned an iPhone trick to quickly select multiple items (2024)

I almost feel silly writing this out but… did anyone else know there’s a built-in gesture to bulk select messages, emails, notes, and more across Apple’s stock apps? Rather than using a sub-menu to put the items in “Select” mode and then ticking the circles that appear in each row, you can just swipe two fingers down the list to select every item in the list that your fingers touch.

If you already knew about this feature then feel free to stop reading here, but I, and several of my Verge colleagues, only learned about it when developer Jordan Morgan tweeted to complain that more third-party apps should make use of it. So although it’s a feature that’s available to all apps on iOS and iPadOS, you’ll mainly find it in Apple’s stock apps. From poking around, it seems to be available in Messages, Mail, Notes, and Reminders, but there are almost certainly lots more.

One Apple app that I really wish made use of the feature is Clock, where it has the potential to be a super handy way of selecting all those old alarms you no longer need and deleting them in one fell swoop. And obviously it would be great to see it used across more third-party apps like Gmail and WhatsApp (but it’s not).

Hidden features like this are interesting to me because they reveal how Apple’s software can struggle to reveal its more advanced features to users over time, despite the company’s attempt to make it as intuitive as possible. That’s particularly apparent with iPadOS. My ex-colleague Dieter Bohn has written at length about all the extra bits of laptop-like functionality that can easily be overlooked by most users.

Today I learned an iPhone trick to quickly select multiple items (2024)

FAQs

Today I learned an iPhone trick to quickly select multiple items? ›

Rather than using a sub-menu to put the items in “Select” mode and then ticking the circles that appear in each row, you can just swipe two fingers down the list to select every item in the list that your fingers touch.

How to select multiple items at once on iPhone? ›

Where there's a list or grid of items in built-in apps on iPhone, you can simply swipe along with 2 fingers to select multiple items. Once selected, you can de-select or select more items just by tapping on it.

How do you select multiple items to delete on iPhone? ›

Tap Select top right. Tap the last photo and drag your finger up to the first one — all photos and videos should be selected (you'll see a blue checkmark if they are). Tap the trash icon bottom right > Delete [x] Items.

How do I select multiple items on the touch screen? ›

On a touchscreen, press and hold your finger on the screen while immediately dragging your finger to expand your selection area. Take your finger off the screen when you've selected all the files and folders you wanted.

What is the shortcut for select multiple items? ›

2) Selecting Multiple Items

To select multiple items in a list, hold down the Ctrl (PC) or Command (Mac) key. Then click on your desired items to select. All of the items you have selected should be highlighted with a different-colored background.

How do you select more than one item to delete? ›

If the messages you want to delete aren't neatly arranged in a group for your convenience, you can hold down the Ctrl key (Mac: the Command key) and click on several messages, selecting each one as you click on it without un-selecting any of the previous messages, nor selecting any message you don't click on.

How do I select multiple items to delete? ›

Tip: You can also select more than one file to be deleted at the same time. Press and hold the CTRL key as you select multiple files to delete. To select a long list of files click the first file in the list, press and hold SHIFT, then click the last file in the list.

How do I Delete unwanted items from my iPhone? ›

These files are stored as logs, cache, and cookies in individual apps. Over time, this “junk” can slow down your iPhone and clog its memory. Clean up junk files on your iPhone by opening Settings > General > iPhone Storage. Open individual apps to delete downloads and data files.

What is the quick menu on iPhone? ›

Control Center on iPhone gives you instant access to useful controls—including airplane mode, Do Not Disturb, a flashlight, volume, screen brightness—and apps.

What is quick press on iPhone? ›

Perform quick actions from the Home Screen and App Library

On the Home Screen and in App Library, touch and hold apps to open quick actions menus. For example: Touch and hold Camera , then choose Take Selfie. Touch and hold Maps , then choose Send My Location. Touch and hold Notes , then choose New Note.

What is quick switch on iPhone? ›

To quickly switch between open apps on an iPhone with Face ID, swipe right or left along the bottom edge of the screen. See alsoOpen apps on iPhone. Previous Find your apps in App Library Next Quit and reopen an app.

What is the command for select all? ›

Press "Ctrl + A" (Windows) or "Cmd + A" (Mac). Or go to "Edit > Select All" if you're using a Mac or Windows computer. Double-tap and select "Select All" in the menu that appears on iPhone, iPad, and Android.

How to scroll select on iPhone? ›

As long as the app supports it, take two fingers and swipe over the items you want to select, and iOS will select those items. You can even drag down to the bottom of the screen to scroll and select, or lift off the screen and repeat the gesture to highlight another group of items.

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