How to control the tappable area of a view using contentShape()

Paul Hudson @twostraws October 20th 2019

Fully updated for Xcode 11.2

If you add a tap gesture to a primitive SwiftUI view such as Text or Image, the whole view becomes tappable. If you add a tap gesture to a container SwiftUI view, such as VStack or HStack, then SwiftUI only adds the gesture to the parts of the container that have something inside – large parts of the stack are likely to be untappable.

If this is what you want then the default behavior is fine. However, if you want to change the shape of hit tests – the area that responds to taps – then you should use the contentShape() modifier with the shape you want.

For example, this code creates a VStack containing an image, a spacer, and some text, then uses the contentShape() modifier to make the whole stack tappable rather than just the image and text:

VStack {
    Image("enterprise").resizable().frame(width: 50, height: 50)
    Spacer().frame(height: 50)
    Text("USS Enterprise")
}
.contentShape(Rectangle())
.onTapGesture {
    print("Show details for Enterprise")
}

How to control the tappable area of a view using contentShape()

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