iOS 11 code hints Drag and Drop may come to iPhone

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Would Drag and Drop work well on iPhone's smaller screen?
Would Drag and Drop work well on iPhone's smaller screen?
Photo: Apple

One of the best new iOS 11 features for iPad could soon make its way to the iPhone.

iOS 11 was unveiled one week ago at Apple’s WWDC 2017 keynote where the iPad got some much-needed productivity features like Drag and Drop. It appears that Apple may be testing bringing the feature to the iPhone as well. One clever developers dug into the first iOS 11 beta and discovered that Drag and Drop can be turned on for the iPhone too.

Activating Drag and Drop on iPhone is as easy as just flipping a switch. iOS Developer Steve Smith tweeted that there are three things preventing users from accessing the feature: /AppleInternal folder, DraggingEnabledPhone & DraggingEnabled BOOLs in UIKit prefs plist.

The feature works pretty well on the iPhone already. It’s unclear why Apple didn’t include it in the iOS 11 announcements. One theory is that the company might be holding it until the iPhone 8 unveiling. Smith says if the iPhone 8 comes with an onscreen home button it could make sense to give users a drop target.

iOS 11 is set to be released to the public this fall. Public beta testers should get access to the first beta later this month. For a full rundown on all the new iOS 11 features, check out Cult of Mac‘s guide.

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