A hidden gesture on the iPhone and iPad lets you quickly select a bunch of items in a list — kind of like Command-A (⌘A) for Select All on a Mac. I use it all the time to select a bunch of emails to archive, a bunch of reminders to rearrange, a batch of files to sort, etc.
Once you learn this two-finger swipe gesture, you’ll use it everywhere. It’s great for getting work done on the go with your phone. Watch our quick video or keep reading.
The iPhone’s two-finger Select All gesture
Who says the iPhone isn’t a real computer? You can get a lot of real work done on your iPhone and iPad. But sometimes, the lack of an always-available keyboard for shortcuts gets in the way.
On the iPhone, you might think to yourself, “I wish I could just hit Command-A, or hold down a Shift key to select all of these.” But in fact, there’s another way.
On any list view, you can swipe with two fingers to instantly begin selecting items. It instantly changes to a selection mode, so you can tap additional items to select or unselect. The toolbar of the app might change as well, letting you move, delete, copy or do something with the selection.
GIF: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
Where does the iPhone’s Select All gesture work?
The iPhone’s Select All gesture works in a variety of apps.
- In Apple’s Mail app, a quick swipe with two fingers lets you select a bunch of messages at once so you can quickly toss them in the archive or trash. It’s much faster than selecting them one by one.
- In Reminders, you can quickly select a bunch of messages to reorder them, move them into different categories, move them into a different list and more.
- The Messages list lets you select messages with a two-finger swipe to mark them as read/unread or delete.
- In Notes, you can use the gesture to select different notes to sort them into folders, tag them or delete them.
- The Files app lets you bulk select items. Then you can quickly share, duplicate, move, delete, tag, compress or create a new folder containing the items you selected.
- In the Phone app, you can mark missed calls and voicemails as read or delete them.
That’s only the tip of the iceberg. Anywhere you see a list of items, you can try using the iPhone’s two-finger swipe gesture to select multiple items in the list.
One more thing…
You can combine the two-finger-swipe gesture with another hidden iPhone gesture. With your other hand, while you’re swiping, tap on the status bar at the top of the screen to instantly scroll to the top of the view. If you began selecting at the bottom, then everything in between will be selected. It makes this fast trick even faster.
More iPhone pro tips
- You can speed up Haptic Touch so your iPhone will bring up handy shortcuts — hidden actions, content previews and contextual menus — in a flash.
- The perfect Action button shortcut combines two actions into one simple toggle switch.
- Set up persistent notifications from specific apps so they stick to the top of your iPhone screen.
- Temporarily turn on AirDrop for everyone so you can share photos with strangers and people outside your contacts.
- Add Messages backgrounds to specific conversations on your iPhone so you can easily tell them apart.
- If you find yourself topping up your iPhone in the middle of the day all too often, you will like these 10 ways to actually save battery life.
D. Griffin Jones is a writer, podcaster and video producer for Cult of Mac. Griffin has been a passionate computer enthusiast since 2002, when he got his first PC — but since getting a Mac in 2008, he hasn’t turned back. His skills in graphic and web design, along with video and podcast editing, are self-taught over 20+ years. Griffin has a bachelor’s degree in computer science and has written several (unpublished) apps for Mac and iOS. His collection of old computers is made up of 40+ desktops, laptops, PDAs and devices, dating back to the early ’80s. He brings all of these creative and technical skills, along with a deep knowledge of Apple history, into his work for Cult of Mac.
