IOS 11 Finally Got (Almost) App Organization Properly
In iOS 11, you can tap apps to see what new features are hidden right under the force-sensitive surface. If you’re the kind of guy who likes to start over whenever you get a new OS update on your device, you’ll probably take some time to arrange the apps on your home screen to your liking. In earlier versions of iOS, organizing apps was a slow and time-consuming process. iOS 11, however, offers a simple and welcome change that makes it a little easier to refactor your apps.
Only one way to organize
In the past, you could organize and reorder apps on your iOS device in two ways: using the device itself and iTunes. iTunes offered more control in terms of organizing apps and allowed you to select multiple apps at the same time to drag and drop at your leisure, whereas previous versions of iOS only allowed you to organize apps one at a time. Needless to say, it took a while.
Now that iTunes has removed both the iOS App Store and its more granular app reorganization feature, your only way to move those tiny squares is on the iOS device itself. Dragging and dropping them one at a time isn’t the best way to interact with pages and app pages, and it only increases the likelihood that I’ll put my hands up and give up swiping to the right every time I want to open Facebook Messenger. The new way of working with apps in iOS 11 finally takes advantage of the multi-touch display and allows you to control multiple apps with two fingers at the same time – an idea that should have been around since the day they added folders (and honestly, it should have been a feature in the first iPhone, but whatever, at least she’s here now).
Here’s how to do it:
- Press and hold the desired application until you enter the application edit mode, where you can move or delete applications by pressing the X icon.
- Hold your finger on the first app and move it until the X disappears.
- Hold your finger on the first app and select other apps you want to move with another finger, automatically folding them.
- To create a folder, drag the application stack onto another application icon until a new folder is created.
Yes, it’s a little awkward (especially the “keep your finger on the screen” part), but don’t tap on it until you’ve tried it. Dragging and dropping a set of icons in a blank area of the screen will arrange them from last selected to first selected, which means that the last application you select will grab the first open location.
If you want to put a new set of applications in a folder, we recommend that you create it beforehand. You can drag a stack of apps on top of another app for iOS to create a folder, but if you decide to move your finger altogether, the new folder disappears and you’re left with the same stack of apps, no doubt thanks to some bug in the recently released operating system.