1. A method implemented by a computing device, the method comprising: abstracting, by an operating system of the computing device, a plurality of items to be displayed as specified by an application through an application programming interface (API) made available to the application by the operating system, the abstraction not integrated within the application, the abstracting comprising: receiving the plurality of items to be displayed from the application through the API; creating, by the operating system without further input from the application, groups to be used to represent content in a zoomed view of a semantic swap; determining a first letter of each of the items to be represented in the zoomed view; organizing each of the items into the created groups based on the determined first letter of each of the items; sending, by the operating system through the API, a view of the items to be displayed within an interface corresponding to the application; and responsive to receipt of an input to initiate a semantic swap, sending, by the operating system and through the API, a view of the created groups to the application to replace the view of the items.