Technologies

Use this hidden iPhone feature to drag-and-drop files, photos, links and text across your apps

The drag-and-drop feature on iOS 15 allows you to quickly send a link via text message or add a photo attachment to an email.

The release of iOS 15 finally brought drag-and-drop to the iPhone ($330 at Amazon) — a feature that’s been available on the iPad ($182 at Amazon) for several years now, thanks to iPadOS15’s various multitasking capabilities. However, it wasn’t one of the highlighted features when the big iPhone update released last year, which is why you may not be familiar with it.

With drag-and-drop on the iPhone, you can move seamlessly between apps to quickly upload photos, send links, share files and more. In a few seconds, you can quickly drag a dozen photos to send via text message or drop a link into an email. In the guide below, we’ll show you everything you can do with the new drag-and-drop feature on iOS 15.

How to drag-and-drop photos and videos on the iPhone

The first way you can use drag-and-drop on iOS is to move images from one app to another. Now, this feature works with any application that allows you to press down on an image to share it, like in Photos, Safari, Twitter and more. For this example, we’ll show you how to drag-and-drop from the native Photos application.

1. Open the Photos app.

2. In grid view, press and hold your finger down on a photo or video, until the quick action menu appears, and then move your finger around so that it floats under your finger.

3. If you want to add more photos to share, use your other finger to tap on any other photos or videos, which will automatically be added to the other photo underneath your finger.

4. Use your other finger to leave the application and navigate to where you want to drop the photo or video.

5. You’ll see a green plus sign on the corner of the photo or video if you can drop it off there.

6. Lift your finger to drop the photo and video.

For example, you could drag the photo into the Mail app, to add it as an attachment, or to the Messages app, to quickly send it via text.

How to drag-and-drop files on the iPhone

The files that live in your Files application, like a PDF, WAV, MP4 or PNG, can also be dragged out of Files and into other applications, like Messages or Mail if you want to share the file, or even another file organizer app if you’re trying to upload the file.

1. Open the Files app.

2. In icon or list view, press your finger down on a file until the quick-action menu appears, and then move your finger around without lifting it so that the file follows your finger.

3. Use another finger to leave the Files app and go to another app.

4. Wait until you see a green plus sign, which means you can drop it there, and then lift your finger to release the file.

If you’re already in the Files app, this is a faster way to share files via text or email.

How to drag-and-drop links on the iPhone

Like with photos, you can also drag-and-drop links from applications such as Safari, Calendar and more. Again, you must be able to press down on the link and have the quick action menu appear to be able to drag and drop it. Here’s how to do it from Safari.

1. Open the Safari app.

2. Press your finger down on any link, until the quick action menu appears, and then move your finger around so the link floats under your finger.

3. Use your other finger to leave the app and lift your finger to drop it elsewhere (only if you see a green plus sign).

You can drop links in other apps such as Messages, Mail, Notes, or any number of social media apps.

How to drag-and-drop text on the iPhone

Finally, you have the option to drag any highlighted text into another app.

1. First, find the text you want to drag-and-drop.

2. Use your finger to then highlight the text, as you would if you wanted to copy it.

3. Then press and hold down on the selection and move your finger around, without lifting it, until the text follows your finger around.

4. Use another finger to leave this app and then drop it elsewhere.

Although copy and paste might be a better (and even faster) option, you do have the ability to drag and drop text on iOS.

If you’re a visual learner, Frederico Viticci, editor-in-chief of MacStories, tweeted a screen recording of the process in June.

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For more, check out everything to know before updating to iOS 15 and everything we didn’t get in iOS 15.

Technologies

Major Amazon Prime Benefit Faces Crackdown Next Month

Amazon plans to end its Prime Invitee program soon. Here’s how this could affect your deliveries.

If you’re using a friend or family member’s free Prime shipping and you don’t live in the same household, you might need to pay another monthly cost. According to Amazon’s updated customer service page, first reported by The Verge, the retail giant is ending its Prime Invitee benefit-sharing program on Oct. 1.

Amazon isn’t the first company to prevent membership sharing between family and friends. The e-commerce giant is just the latest to follow Netflix’s account-sharing crackdown. We also saw it done with Disney-Plus last year. While it’s unclear whether this change will work for Amazon, Netflix gained over 200,000 subscribers following its policy change.

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Amazon’s Prime Invitee program is being replaced by Amazon Family, which includes many of the same benefits. However, Amazon Family only works for up to two adults and four children living in the same «primary residential address» — a shared home. While you’ll still be able to use free shipping to send gifts elsewhere, your Prime Invitees will no longer be able to use the perk.

Read more: More Than Just Free Shipping: Here Are 19 Underrated Amazon Prime Perks

What this means for you

If you’re the beneficiary of someone else’s Prime Invitee benefits, you have one more month to take advantage of the current program before the changes take effect.

Starting in October, you’ll have to get your own Amazon Prime subscription in order to benefit from the company’s free shipping program. First-time subscribers get a year of Prime membership for $15, but you’ll be stuck shelling out $15 a month to maintain your subscription thereafter.

Read more: Your Free Pass to Prime Day Deals (No Membership Required)

Why is Amazon ending the Prime Invitee program?

This move follows shortly after Reuters reported that Amazon’s Prime account signups slowed down recently despite an extended July Prime Day event. While the company reported blowout sales numbers, new Prime subscriptions didn’t meet internal expectations. In the US, they fell short of last year’s signup metrics.

According to Reuters, Amazon registered 5.4 million US signups over the 21-day run-up to the Prime Day event, around 116,000 fewer than during the same period in 2024, and 106,000 below the company’s own goal, a roughly 2% decline in both metrics.

By forcing separate households to have their own subscriptions, Amazon could be looking to attract more Prime accounts after previously failing to do so.

The new Amazon Family program (previously known as Amazon Household) offers Prime benefits to up to two adults and four children in a single home, including free shipping, Prime Video, Prime Reading, Amazon Music and more. The subscription also includes benefits for certain third-party companies, such as GrubHub.

Impulse Buys Under $25 on Amazon That Make Surprisingly Great Gifts

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Technologies

Premiere Pro for Free: How Adobe’s New iPhone App Will Let You Edit Videos at No Cost

Adobe Premiere users will only have to pay for extra AI credits and cloud storage.

Thanks to social media apps like TikTok and Instagram, everyone is an video editor these days. And soon you won’t have to sit down at a laptop to use one of the most popular video editors on the market.

Adobe announced on Thursday that it is releasing a new video editing iPhone app named Premiere on Sept. 30. You can preorder the app now in the Apple App Store, with an Android app currently in development.

The iOS app should feel familiar to Premiere users, with its multitrack timeline and preview screen. The app can be used for all your usual video editing: trimming clips, overlaying audio and adding synchronized captions. You can also use Adobe’s new voice-to-sound effects tool and record voiceovers.

Premiere should be a big upgrade for Adobe users who have only used Premiere Rush, a barebones version of its video editor. As more content creators become mobile-first, Adobe is hoping to draw them in with revamped mobile apps.

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You should be able to use the Premiere iOS app for free. Adobe says you may need to pay for generative AI credits and additional storage, like through Adobe Creative Cloud, though more pricing info is expected closer to the Sept. 30 launch. This is very different from the desktop app, which starts at $23 per month.

A truly free Premiere mobile app would be a win for content creators, especially for anyone who wants to explore editing in Premiere but doesn’t want to pay for another subscription.

In an era of mobile-first content creators, tech companies have raced to introduce user-friendly mobile editing apps. TikTok creators use the ever-popular CapCut, with Meta adding its own contribution, a new app called Edits. Adobe has long been the industry standard for professional content creation and editing, but its mobile offerings were usually less feature-packed versions of its flagship programs under different names.

That changed this year as Adobe released true mobile versions of Photoshop and Firefly AI. The new Premiere app helps Adobe make a competitive entrance in a crowded market, in addition to giving loyal Adobe users a new way to access their tools on the go.

Adobe has also been focused on integrating generative AI into its software. Premiere Pro got its first-ever AI tool, generative extend, which uses AI to add a few extra seconds to clips you upload. It’s meant to help smooth transitions between clips, particularly when you might have turned off the recording a smidge too early and need a few extra seconds of film.

AI is a contentious issue among creators, with some voicing concerns over the training and deployment of AI models. Adobe’s Firefly AI has been fully integrated into the new Premiere iOS app, though the company’s AI guidelines state that it never trains on customer data and that its AI-generated content is commercially safe.

For more, check out what to know about the iOS and Android Photoshop apps and good alternatives to CapCut.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Saturday, Sept. 6

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Sept. 6.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s Mini Crossword is extra-long, as usual on Saturdays. And a couple of the clues were stumpers! Need answers? Read on. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.