Using complex gestures in a SwiftUI ScrollView
SwiftUI gestures are complicated, since they can block the ScrollView gestures. Let’s look at a way to implement rich view gestures in a way that doesn’t block the scrolling.
Update 2024-09-02
The ScrollViewGestureButton below stopped working in iOS 18, where the button gestures started blocking the scroll view gestures.
iOS 18 however doesn’t need these complex gestures anymore. We only need to change the GestureButton to use a simultaneous gesture, and it works right away.
The new GestureButton open-source project contains these improvements, so check it out for code samples and source-code that is adjusted for the future.
The problem
I ran into this problem in a project where I need to apply gestures to views in a ScrollView. These gestures conflict with the scroll gestures, which causes scrolling to stop working.
To explain, let’s say you have a horizontal ScrollView, to which you add a bunch of views:
struct MyView: View {
var body: some View {
VStack {
Text("\(tapCount) taps")
ScrollView(.horizontal) {
LazyHStack {
ForEach(0...100, id: \.self) { _ in
Color.red
.frame(width: 100, height: 100)
}
}
}
}
}
}
This creates a horizontal list of squares that can we can swipe to scroll through the items.
Let’s update the code above to add an onTapGesture modifier to each list item:
Color.red
.onTapGesture { print("Tap") }
Run the code again, and you’ll see that things will still work. You can tap items to trigger an action, while still scrolling through the items as before.
Let’s now update the code to use an onLongPressGesture instead of the onTapGesture:
Color.red
.onLongPressGesture { print("Long press") }
If you run this code, you can long press the items to trigger the long press action. However, if you try to scroll in the list, you’ll notice that scrolling no longer works.
It doesn’t matter if you use a gesture with a LongPressGesture, scrolling is still broken:
Color.red
.gesture(
LongPressGesture()
.onChanged { _ in print("Long press changed") }
.onEnded { _ in print("Long press ended") }
)
With this code, the onChange and onEnded functions will trigger as expected, but the list will not scroll. The same will happen if you use a DragGesture instead of a LongPressGesture.
Why does this happen?
Scrolling stops working because the long press and drag gesture modifiers block the scroll view in a way that doesn’t happen when you apply a tap gesture modifier.
I guess it has something to do with that taps just have to detect a press and release, while others need to track gestures over time, in a way that may conflict with the scroll gestures.
Some non-working solutions
If you search for this problem online, you will find suggestions that you can fix this by adding an empty onTapGesture before the long press and drag gestures:
listItem
.onTapGesture { print("Tap") }
.gesture(
LongPressGesture()
.onEnded { _ in print("Long press") }
)
This will actually work. The long press gesture will trigger and you will still be able to scroll through the list. However, if you replace gesture with a simultaneousGesture, scrolling will stop working again:
listItem
.onTapGesture { print("Tap") }
.simultaneousGesture(
LongPressGesture()
.onEnded { _ in print("Long press") }
)
The reason why gesture works and simultaneousGesture doesn’t, is because the gesture schedules itself after any prior gestures, while simultaneousGesture schedules itself to run simultaneously with them. Hence the name, heh.
In other words. Since the gesture triggers after onTapGesture, it doesn’t interfere with the scroll view. And since the simultaneousGesture triggers immediately, it does.
This means that the onTapGesture approach requires a delay. If we want to use immediate gestures, such as detecting drags and presses, this approach is not viable.
You may find other delay-based solutions to this problem, some pretty complicated. If they are based on delays, they won’t work if we want the gestures to be immediately detected.
Finding a workaround
While UIKit has very granular gesture detection, SwiftUI is more limited. We can still do much of the same things, but with much fewer tools.
For instance, you can use a DragGesture with 0 distance to detect a press gesture, then listen for the drag gesture to end to detect a release.
However, since long presses and drag gestures don’t work in ScrollView, we must find a way to detect some of these gestures in a way that doesn’t mess with the scrolling.
After pondering this for a while, me and Konstantin Zyryanov realized that we have another way to detect that a view is being pressed - using a ButtonStyle.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with SwiftUI ButtonStyle, it lets you change the style of a button depending on its role, isPressed state, etc.
For instance, this style changes the opacity of its label based on the isPressed state:
struct MyButtonStyle: ButtonStyle {
func makeBody(configuration: Configuration) -> some View {
configuration.label
.opacity(configuration.isPressed ? 0.5 : 1)
}
}
Since button styles don’t interfere with scrolling (that would have made the entire approach unusable, since it’s a universal tool), perhaps this is the hack we’ve been looking for?
Perhaps we can use a ButtonStyle to work around the scroll view limitations and use it to detect presses and releases, without having to use a drag gesture?
Let’s find out!
Building a scroll view gesture button
When creating a style-based approach, I want it to be able to detect the following gestures:
- Presses
- Releases (inside and outside)
- Long presses
- Hold presses
- Double taps
- Gesture ended
Most of these gestures can be handled by the button style, while some must be handled by the button itself. Let’s begin with the style.
Defining a button style
Let’s create a ScrollViewGestureButtonStyle and define the gestures it will let us handle:
struct ScrollViewGestureButtonStyle: ButtonStyle {
init(
pressAction: @escaping () -> Void,
longPressTime: TimeInterval,
longPressAction: @escaping () -> Void,
doubleTapTimeout: TimeInterval,
doubleTapAction: @escaping () -> Void,
endAction: @escaping () -> Void
) {
self.pressAction = pressAction
self.longPressTime = longPressTime
self.longPressAction = longPressAction
self.doubleTapTimeout = doubleTapTimeout
self.doubleTapAction = doubleTapAction
self.endAction = endAction
}
private var doubleTapTimeout: TimeInterval
private var longPressTime: TimeInterval
private var pressAction: () -> Void
private var longPressAction: () -> Void
private var doubleTapAction: () -> Void
private var endAction: () -> Void
func makeBody(configuration: Configuration) -> some View {
// Insert magic here
}
}
Besides the actions, we also add configurations to let us define the max time between two taps to count as a double tap, as well as how long time that is required for a long press.
With this in place, we can start handling the pressed state within makeBody, which we can detect by using the configuration.isPressed value:
func makeBody(configuration: Configuration) -> some View {
configuration.label
.onChange(of: configuration.isPressed) { isPressed in
if isPressed {
pressAction()
} else {
endAction()
}
}
}
Here, we subscribe to the pressed state and trigger a function every time it changes. We then trigger the pressAction if the configuration is pressed and the endAction if it’s not.
If you wonder why endAction is called and not releaseAction, let me spoil a future finding. If we apply this style to a button in a scroll view, then start scrolling when it’s is pressed, the endAction will be triggered as the gesture is cancelled, even if we still press the button.
In other words, this is not a release action. We must handle the release in another way.
How to handle double taps
To handle double taps, we just have to detect how fast two press events are triggered. To implement this for our button style, first add this state to the style:
@State
var doubleTapDate = Date()
then add the following function:
private extension ScrollViewGestureButtonStyle {
func tryTriggerDoubleTap() -> Bool {
let interval = Date().timeIntervalSince(doubleTapDate)
guard interval < doubleTapTimeout else { return false }
doubleTapAction()
return true
}
}
then finally add the following to the isPressed handling:
if isPressed {
pressAction()
doubleTapDate = tryTriggerDoubleTap() ? .distantPast : .now
} else {
endAction()
}
Here, we check if there’s an earlier press that should cause the new press to be handled as a double tap. If two presses happen within doubleTapTimeout, we trigger a double tap, otherwise we set doubleTapDate to the distant past to avoid future incorrect double taps.
To be clear, this is not a double tap, but a double press. However, it serves our purpose.
How to handle long presses
To handle long presses, we just have to detect how long a press event is being active. To implement this for our button style, first add this state to the style:
@State
var longPressDate = Date()
then add the following function:
private extension ScrollViewGestureButtonStyle {
func tryTriggerLongPressAfterDelay(triggered date: Date) {
DispatchQueue.main.asyncAfter(deadline: .now() + longPressTime) {
guard date == longPressDate else { return }
longPressAction()
}
}
}
then finally add the following to the isPressed handling:
longPressDate = Date()
if isPressed {
pressAction()
doubleTapDate = tryTriggerDoubleTap() ? .distantPast : .now
tryTriggerLongPressAfterDelay(triggered: longPressDate)
} else {
endAction()
}
We first set longPressDate, then trigger an async operation after the longPressTime. If the date is still the same when it triggers, we trigger the longPressAction.
Wrapping up our style
Our button style is now complete. All in all, it looks like this:
struct ScrollViewGestureButtonStyle: ButtonStyle {
init(
pressAction: @escaping () -> Void,
doubleTapTimeoutout: TimeInterval,
doubleTapAction: @escaping () -> Void,
longPressTime: TimeInterval,
longPressAction: @escaping () -> Void,
endAction: @escaping () -> Void
) {
self.pressAction = pressAction
self.doubleTapTimeoutout = doubleTapTimeoutout
self.doubleTapAction = doubleTapAction
self.longPressTime = longPressTime
self.longPressAction = longPressAction
self.endAction = endAction
}
private var doubleTapTimeoutout: TimeInterval
private var longPressTime: TimeInterval
private var pressAction: () -> Void
private var longPressAction: () -> Void
private var doubleTapAction: () -> Void
private var endAction: () -> Void
@State
var doubleTapDate = Date()
@State
var longPressDate = Date()
func makeBody(configuration: Configuration) -> some View {
configuration.label
.onChange(of: configuration.isPressed) { isPressed in
longPressDate = Date()
if isPressed {
pressAction()
doubleTapDate = tryTriggerDoubleTap() ? .distantPast : .now
tryTriggerLongPressAfterDelay(triggered: longPressDate)
} else {
endAction()
}
}
}
}
private extension ScrollViewGestureButtonStyle {
func tryTriggerDoubleTap() -> Bool {
let interval = Date().timeIntervalSince(doubleTapDate)
guard interval < doubleTapTimeoutout else { return false }
doubleTapAction()
return true
}
func tryTriggerLongPressAfterDelay(triggered date: Date) {
DispatchQueue.main.asyncAfter(deadline: .now() + longPressTime) {
guard date == longPressDate else { return }
longPressAction()
}
}
}
We still miss some functionality, such as detecting when a button is released. This can’t be done within the style, since the style gesture may be cancelled, so let’s define a button that will apply the style and fill out these missing parts.
How to handle gesture releases
To implement the release gesture, lets create a button that uses a releaseAction as its tap action and applies the button style that we just defined:
struct ScrollViewGestureButton<Label: View>: View {
init(
doubleTapTimeoutout: TimeInterval = 0.5,
longPressTime: TimeInterval = 1,
pressAction: @escaping () -> Void = {},
releaseAction: @escaping () -> Void = {},
endAction: @escaping () -> Void = {},
longPressAction: @escaping () -> Void = {},
doubleTapAction: @escaping () -> Void = {},
label: @escaping () -> Label
) {
self.style = ScrollViewGestureButtonStyle(
doubleTapTimeoutout: doubleTapTimeoutout,
longPressTime: longPressTime,
pressAction: pressAction,
endAction: endAction,
longPressAction: longPressAction,
doubleTapAction: doubleTapAction)
self.releaseAction = releaseAction
self.label = label
}
var label: () -> Label
var style: GestureButtonStyle
var releaseAction: () -> Void
var body: some View {
Button(action: releaseAction, label: label)
.buttonStyle(style)
}
}
That’s it! The button just wraps the provided label, triggers the provided releaseAction and then lets the newly created style take care of the remaining gestures.
With this approach, you can press, relase, double tap, long press, etc. without messing up the scrolling. All made possible by the fact that the button style can detect presses without blocking the scroll view.
Going further
While the above works well, it’s can’t detect drag gestures yet. I have therefore improved it to handle drag gestures as well, which was a bit more complicated than I first expected.
First, we can’t apply the gesture to a Button, but must apply it to the button content view:
Button(action: releaseAction) {
buttonContentView
.gesture(DragGesture(...)) // Must go here
}
.buttonStyle(style)
.gesture(DragGesture(...)) // <-- This will not work!!!
However, adding a DragGesture to the view means that it will conflict with the button style. For instance, quickly tapping the button will only trigger the button action and not the style.
This means that we must handle double taps for both the button and the style. Also, since this new drag gesture will once again block scrolling, we must add a tap gesture before it to force a delay. This adds even more complexities since a tap gesture, a drag gesture and a button style must now work together.
Adding drag gestures turned out to open a can of worms. Since the different parts of the code must handle the same functionality in different cases, I had to make the code more complex to avoid duplication. It works great, but became more complex than I expected.
Conclusion
ScrollViewGestureButton lets you apply multiple gesture actions to a button with a single DragGesture, that works in a ScrollView.
I have added a ScrollViewGestureButton to my SwiftUIKit library. You can find the source code here. If you decide to give it a try, I’d be very interested in hearing what you think.
Discussions & More
If you found this interesting and would like to share your thoughts, please comment in the Disqus section below or reply to this tweet.
Follow on Twitter and Mastodon to be notified when new content & articles are published.