How did I not know about this ingenious iPhone hack?

iPhone hacks do the rounds online almost every day, and most of the time, 'hack' is a strong word (yes, I know my iPhone can be used to take photographs). But every now and again something takes me by surprise – such as this ingeniously simple trick.

To select a bunch of emails, messages or reminders, it turns out you don't always have to hit 'Select' then individually tap everything you want to highlight. There's a much simpler way – and it only takes two fingers. (In the market for a new phone? Check out the best iPhone 13 deals available now.)

The Verge's Jon Porter discovered the trick (which might, I will admit, be familiar to a few iPhone users – but it's news to Jon and me!) yesterday and shared a screen recording on Twitter (below). Rather than the multi-step process of tapping select, then ticking various items, we can simply scroll down with two fingers. 

Unfortunately, it doesn't look like the trick works on every app. As Porter points out, it's absent from the Clocks app (and could have been pretty useful for deleting a build-up of single-use alarms). And there are plenty of third-party apps that don't use it – perhaps because the developers simply don't know it exists. 

So there we have it, another iPhone hack to add to the pile, where it joins the likes of full-page screenshots, three-finger copy and paste and, er, Harry Potter spells. Want to experience all of the above for yourself? Check out today's best iPhone 13 deals below.

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