Well now I feel like an idiot because I have had an iPhone since the 4S and never knew this

How am I supposed to learn "tricks" like this? They seem to be basic stuff.

Neat! I was in the other sub-thread suggesting the slow one-finger version. Hopefully a few other apps use the same paradigm.

Walter Bright, is it possible you run an older version of iOS or that you use a different app than Mail? I completely believe what you’re experiencing; just trying to think why it’s happening to you…

It doesn't work when I try it. It just scrolls the screen.

It might be the tap-then-drag delay — I've been using this process for a few years so I know it works but I haven't seen it documented anywhere by Apple so I'm probably using different terminology.

https://www.idownloadblog.com/2019/12/02/two-finger-tap-ipho...

That didn't work, either :-(

The whole screen just scrolls.

What works for me is to not attempt to time it at all. Simply place two fingers directly on a message. Leave them there. Wait a second, then start sliding down. The message list should immediately shift to the right, exposing selection "circles" at the left edge of each message. As you continue sliding downward, each circle you "pass" will become selected. You can continue holding as you reach the bottom of the screen to keep the selection going. If you overshoot the end of the area you want to delete, you can slide back up to unselect a few rows before releasing. This works in both Mail and Messages.

Ha - on the iPad there is an edit button that exposes the selection circles; never occurred to me there would be a way to do the same thing on the iPhone. Nice!

I put two fingers on a message. The message shades slightly. I slide down. The shading goes away, and the screen slides down. It does not slide right, it does not collect $200.

When I put two fingers at the same time on a message, the checkboxes immediately appear. If I'm even slightly off, the checkboxes never appear and instead I get to see the contents of the message when I let go.

I tried this again and again.

Wow. I didn’t know this. Thank you for sharing!

You’re welcome — I had the same reaction seeing a video a couple of years ago. Best kept secret…