How to Drag and Drop Text and Other Content Between Apps on iPhone

With iOS 15, you can use drag-and-drop between apps on your iPhone to move things like documents, text, and pictures between apps. This feature feels more intuitive and flawless than the long-standing copy-paste feature. No wonder most iOS users have been on the wish list for a long time.

For those who are unaware, iPad has been drag-and-drop between apps for several years (since iOS 11 in 2017). Apple blocked this productivity-centric feature on the iPhone. Perhaps the Cupertino giant wanted to keep it exclusive to the iPad or thought the movement might not work so fast on the iPhone. Now that it's accessible, let me show you how to drag and drop text and other content on iPhone running iOS 15 or later.

How to Drag and Leave Text Between Apps on iPhone

You no longer need to rely on the traditional copy-paste gesture to move text and URLs between apps on your iPhone.

Start the app with the text you want to copy to another app, and select the text. For this stylish guide, I will copy the text in Safari and paste it into notes.
Now, long press the selected text and make sure to hold the selection with your finger. It's worth noting that long-pressing the selected text allows it to rise and stick to your finger so you can drag it onto the screen.
Then use another finger to scroll up from the bottom of the screen and go from the app preview or home screen to the target app.
While holding the selected text with your finger, go to the preferred location in the target app and drop it. When dragging selected content, animations and visual cues play a vital role in identifying possible target text boxes.

How to Drag and Leave Documents Between Apps on iPhone

Dragging and dropping images between apps on iPhone feels as smooth as on iPad.

Open the app with the pictures you want to move to another app, such as the Photos app. I'm going to drag some pictures from my photo library to the stock Notes app.
Select the images and press long.
Swipe up from the bottom of the screen using another finger to go from the app changer or home screen to the target app.
Drop the selected images to the preferred location in the target app.