Gesture Input to Group and Control Items

In one embodiment, a method receives a gesture via a touchscreen of an electronic device. The touchscreen displays a set of objects that are used to control a set of controllable devices. The method then determines the gesture is a command to group a plurality of objects together and joins the plurality of objects as a single group. The plurality of objects correspond to a plurality of controllable devices. A control to apply to the single group is determined in response to receiving the gesture where the control is applied to the plurality of controllable devices to cause the plurality of controllable devices to perform a function together.