Developer gets drag & drop working on iPhone in iOS 11 beta

A developer has gotten the drag & drop function working on iPhones with the iOS 11 beta. Apple presented it as a function that only works on iPads, but according to the developer, the manufacturer has also built the feature for its phones.

Apple has indicated in three places that the function should not work on iPhones, such as says developer Steve Troughton-Smith. That is in the /AppleInternal directory and with two options in the list of preferences in UIPrefs, namely DraggingEnabledPhone and DragginEnabled BOOLs. Dragging items between various apps is limited by the CancelOnDeactivationPhone option.

The function makes it possible to pick up one or more items in an app and then go to another app via the home screen and put the items there again. For example, it is possible to drag files, photos or links. The feature will be part of iOS 11 for iPads. Apple will release iOS 11 this fall and the manufacturer put the first beta online last week.

It’s unknown whether drag & drop will be enabled in future versions of iOS 11 for iPhones, but Throughton-Smith speculates that if many people ask Apple for it, the software maker will enable the feature.

This is not the first time the developer has discovered a hidden feature in iOS. Last year he put images online of a keyboard that can be operated with one hand. In addition to drag&drop discovered another developer that the new control center has a plugin system. This makes it possible to add functions to the control center.