@sylumer , thanks for pointing out my ambiguity, I didn’t realize I was (really, really so). It’s amazing how people manage to pick apart OPs that the poster considered to be clear-cut, but I’m hugely grateful for you doing that, so again thanks:
It isn’t hugely clear from the original post, but the OP does note that they are talking about swiping from within the trash folder specifically.
That is not what I meant, apologies for being unclear. What I should have written (the OP is now updated accordingly) is:
swiping left too fast or too long, and the draft is either moved to the Trash, or in the Trash, gone for good. Swiping left slow and careful and you can pick “Flag”, “Archive”, or in the case of the Trash, "Restore”.
Please don’t hesitate to point out if there’s still something unclear, I really appreciate the help.
Most people let the trash manage itself as content auto deletes in 30 days. We have had discussions on the forum before about manual deletion for privacy/security and the challenge that you then also need to take into consideration backups too.
This is a misinterpretation; it’s actually the opposite of intentional deletion that is the problem: it is far to easy to by sheer mistake swipe-delete a draft from the Trash when you only intended to Restore it!
I’ve updated the OP to clear out the misunderstanding.
I believe this is the first (public) request for this change in behaviour. That leads me to believe that this is more of an opinion-based request than a “big problem”. I would expect any “big problem” with this long standing feature to have come to the fore many years ago. I personally would categorise this as a valid feature request.
@sylumer , good point. You may be completely right. Or, as I’ve elaborated in this Topic,
I honestly believe that these issues concern a lot more users than you think - and most of them I’m sure haven’t even thought very much about it, or had the time, energy, patience and endurance to ask for a solution - or even realized how it could be fixed at all, or capable of suggesting how (a lot of users aren’t technical at all). It’s just an annoyance that they live with, but that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t appreciate if it went away.
And, I might add, to some it’s more than an annoyance: it actually is a big problem.
That includes me, and my excuse is that I ain’t fifty anymore, so my agility with tapping and swiping isn’t what it used to be. And besides: how can you be sure the reason that “this long standing feature” haven’t “come to the fore many years ago” isn’t simply that the users that feel anxious about swiping on drafts on their iPhones work around it by preferring to move drafts to the Trash and (in the rare case they need to) restore drafts from the Trash using their other devices in stead, if possible? Or as have been pointed out in the other Topic, use long-press menus in stead, to which I replied:
Long-press menus are great, I use them in many situations not just in Drafts so I’m used to them. They make many tasks more efficient, but sifting through the menu to find the right action is actually quite cumbersome and it’s not as easy as you think on iPhone to strike home when you tap: it’s not difficult to miss the intended action, so using a long-press menu typically takes a lot more time than a quick and easy swipe, so when there’s a swiping action available I always prefer that because it’s much more time-saving (free time is a luxury I don’t have a lot of) - and less annoying if delete confirmation is granted as an option.
In fact, I believe the number one reason that the small annoyances never “come to the fore” to be this very situation right here: the incredible amount of work that you have to put down to get through the sieve that relentlessly sifts out ambiguities, unclarities, misinterpretations and misunderstandings, before you can get your message through. Many to many that actually take on the task of trying to achieve a change by creating a Topic gives up long before that, and most would-be OPs never post anything at all because they know that: of this I am 100% certain.
So if it’s alright with you, I’d prefer to let this Topic simmer for a while in the “Issues” category and await a few more comments.
︎ A great alternative to confirmation dialogs is for the slider to stop sliding beyond “Trash” - or in the Trash, beyond “Delete” - without halting first: the slider could simply stop and can’t be moved beyond displaying “Trash” or “Delete”, respectively. And to actually trash or delete, you tap “Trash” or “Delete”, respectively. And that final action doesn’t need a confirmation dialog: you cancel by simply tapping anywhere than on the slider and when you do, the slider retracts.