How to Use Cross-app Drag and Drop in iOS 15

iOS15 allows you to drag and drop images, documents, and text between different apps instead of copy-pasting or searching for an image or a document again on another app. Here's how to use cross-app drag and drop in iPhones running on iOS 15.

How Do You Drag and Drop on iOS 15?

iOS 15 allows you to use a continuous gesture to drop text, images, or documents from a source app to a destination app. Before iOS 15, you could drag and drop within a single app only.

Drag ad Drop Text Between Apps 

You can easily move text or URLs between apps instead of copy-pasting them. 

1. Open the app with the text you want to copy to another app.
   

2. Select the text.
   

3. Long press on the selected text and hold the selection with the finger as it hovers over the screen.
   

4. With another finger, swipe up on the screen from the bottom and open the destination app from the Home Screen or the app preview.
   

5. On the destination app, drop the text on a specific location or a text field. 
   

Drag and Drop Images Between Apps

Image sharing is faster and more intuitive with a drag and drop. On an iPhone, the source is often the Photos app, while the destination can be any social apps. 

1. Open the source app with the images you want to drag and drop.
   

2. Select the image and long-press it with a finger. 
   

3. Use another finger to swipe up from the bottom of the screen to open the destination app from the Home Screen or the app preview. 
   

4. Drop the selected image on the desired location of the destination app. 
   

Drag and Drop Documents Between Apps

Follow the same steps as above to drag and drop documents between apps. Files can be audio and video files, PDFs, or other document formats. For example, you can drag and drop a PDF from the Files app to your email. 

How Do I Drag and Drop Between Apps?

Before iOS 15, you could drag and drop within an app but not across apps. It takes some skill with the fingers to do a drag and drop. But it's faster than the typical copy and paste or successive download and upload of a document. 

Drag and drop also allows you to handle multiple files if you can skillfully use two or more fingers. Ideally, keep the destination app and the location for the drop open as a preview in the middle of the screen to make it easier.