How to Quickly Select Multiple Photos in iOS

Software

Updated May 19, 2019

Back in iOS 4, there was a little-known trick for selecting multiple photos in the default Apple Photos app. When iOS 5 came along, this functionality was removed. It didn't resurface in iOS 6, but in iOS 7 Apple added automatic groupings to the Photos App, and we once again have an easier way of selecting multiple photos than tapping each thumbnail individually. If you have not yet discovered multiple photo select in iOS 7, here's how it's done.

From iOS 9 onward, photos are automatically sorted into collections by year, date, and location. This makes selecting multiple images easy.

When Photos open, tap a collection. The Moments screen will open.
Tap Select and all of the images will sport a check mark.
If you have the wrong collection, tap Deselect.
If you want to delete photos, tap the ones you want to keep and the check mark disappears. Tap the Trash can and you will be prompted to either delete the selected photos or cancel the operation.
If you want to move them to a different Album, tap the Add To button and you will be presented with a list of albums. Tap the destination album and they will be added to the album
If you want to share the selected photos with others or add them to an email tap the Move To button.

Open the Photos App and make sure you are in the "Photos" section from the three icons at the bottom of the screen.
Look at the top of the screen and make sure the view is "Moments." If the text in the middle at the top of the screen shows "Collections" or "Years" you will need to drill down until you get to "Moments." To drill down, tap on the thumbnail grouping (the pictures--not the heading).
Once you are in Moments view, you will find smaller groupings of photos by date, time or location. These groupings are created automatically. At the top right of the screen, you will have a "Select" option. Tap this to enter selection mode.
Now you can tap individual thumbnails one at a time to select them, or you can tap the word "Select" that appears at the top of each grouping to select an entire grouping. You can scroll up and down the screen to select multiple groupings, and you can tap on individual thumbnails to add or remove them from your selection.
When you have selected all the photos that you want to include, you can use the buttons (at the bottom of the screen for iPhone/iPod; top of the screen for iPad) to delete them (trash can), add them to an album ("Add To"), or perform other actions (action icon).