When does it make sense to use a new gesture in your app?

Recorded May 31st 2020 – watch the full episode on YouTube.

‌when does it make sense to introduce a new type of gesture in your app? In SwiftUI, you can do simultaneous gestures, sequence gestures, high-priority gestures, and more, but when do you want to introduce a new gesture, rather than relying on one of the built in system gesture types?

Meng To: I think it makes sense based on feedback. If you can make it save time for people, it makes sense to use a gesture. For example, if the think about swiping down to close, while it saves you time from using, let's say, a one handed gesture.

I mean, a one-handed usage of the phone to avoid having to use your other hand to go to the top right corner of the screen to tap a button – that's when it makes sense to use gesture. I would definitely go with the feedback. I would definitely go with the saving time paradigm.

If you think about, let's say, okay, maybe you have some hidden feature that is not easily accessible. It might not be important for all users, but it might be important for power users. And you're like, well, how can I make the like button easier to use in one handed usage? Maybe double tap. Maybe swipe to the right like Tinder. Or swipe to the left. You know what I mean? Those are when gestures make sense.

Paul Hudson: Christian Selig who makes Apollo has some really nice UI touches that I wish a) were in UIKit/SwiftUI and b) I knew how he made them, because they are remarkable. He has this thing where you can swipe back, but then if you change your mind you can swipe the other way and get the screen back again. It's like when you send an email, you just want to just check what you wrote after you sent it, you know?

Or it has this thing where it's like dark mode, but reduce smear. And it really works. I want to know how it works! That kind of swipe forward gesture to go back to where you were – I think that is intuitive. You want to get back to where you were, and as long as it doesn't collide with table view cell’s swipe actions, then I think that should be a standard UIKit thing. So I'm holding out hope, perhaps see that in UIKit in the future, but custom gestures really can bring apps to life, I think.

This transcript was recorded as part of Swiftly Speaking. You can watch the full original episode on YouTube, or subscribe to the audio version on Apple Podcasts.

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