How to detect Swipe Gesture in iOS? How to detect Swipe Gesture in iOS? ios ios

How to detect Swipe Gesture in iOS?


If You know how it works, but still need a quick example, here it is! (it will become handy at least for me, when I will need copy-paste example, without trying remembering it)

UISwipeGestureRecognizer *mSwipeUpRecognizer = [[UISwipeGestureRecognizer alloc] initWithTarget:self action:@selector(doSomething)];[mSwipeUpRecognizer setDirection:(UISwipeGestureRecognizerDirectionUp | UISwipeGestureRecognizerDirectionDown | UISwipeGestureRecognizerDirectionLeft | UISwipeGestureRecognizerDirectionRight)];[[self view] addGestureRecognizer:mSwipeUpRecognizer];

and in .h file add:

<UIGestureRecognizerDelegate>


Use the UISwipeGestureRecognizer. Not much else to say really, gesture recognizers are easy. There are WWDC10 videos on the subject even. Sessions 120 and 121. :)


The following link below redirects you to a video tutorial which explains you how to detect swipes on the iPhone in Objective-C:

UISwipeGestureRecognizer Tutorial (Detecting swipes on the iPhone)

Code sample below, to achieve that in Swift:

You need to have one UISwipeGestureRecognizer for each direction. It's a little weird because the UISwipeGestureRecognizer.direction property is an options-style bit mask, but each recognizer can only handle one direction. You can send them all to the same handler if you want, and sort it out there, or send them to different handlers. Here's one implementation:

override func viewDidLoad() {    super.viewDidLoad()        var swipeRight = UISwipeGestureRecognizer(target: self, action: "respondToSwipeGesture:")    swipeRight.direction = UISwipeGestureRecognizerDirection.Right    self.view.addGestureRecognizer(swipeRight)        var swipeDown = UISwipeGestureRecognizer(target: self, action: "respondToSwipeGesture:")    swipeDown.direction = UISwipeGestureRecognizerDirection.Down    self.view.addGestureRecognizer(swipeDown)}func respondToSwipeGesture(gesture: UIGestureRecognizer) {        if let swipeGesture = gesture as? UISwipeGestureRecognizer {                switch swipeGesture.direction {        case UISwipeGestureRecognizerDirection.Right:            println("Swiped right")        case UISwipeGestureRecognizerDirection.Down:            println("Swiped down")        default:            break        }    }}

Swift 5 version:

let swipeRight = UISwipeGestureRecognizer(target: self, action: #selector(self.respondToSwipeGestureRight))swipeRight.direction = UISwipeGestureRecognizer.Direction.rightself.view.addGestureRecognizer(swipeRight)