Gesture Recognizer

What Does Gesture Recognizer Mean?

A gesture recognizer is a code function in the iOS Apple operating system (OS) that helps a mobile device respond to specific touch-screen inputs from a user. A UIGestureRecognizer acts as an abstract base class for various sub-classes in the UIKit – commonly known as gesture recognizers. Developers can use existing gesture recognizers to support responses to a set of common gestures, or create additional gesture recognizers.

Advertisements

Techopedia Explains Gesture Recognizer

Existing gesture recognizers include support for pinching in and out, panning and dragging and various types of quick taps. There is also a class for a "long press" or "touch and hold" input, as well as rotating and swiping actions on the touchscreen.

Although the gesture recognizer class allows the development of custom responses, experts advise developers to adhere to normal standards expected by users. Changing responses within a given application can profoundly confuse one of the most important, intuitive aspects of the iOS user interface, which takes users some time to learn and should be as easy as possible to understand.

Advertisements

Related Terms

Latest Mobile App Development Terms

Related Reading

Margaret Rouse

Margaret Rouse is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical, business audience. Over the past twenty years her explanations have appeared on TechTarget websites and she's been cited as an authority in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine and Discovery Magazine.Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages. If you have a suggestion for a new definition or how to improve a technical explanation, please email Margaret or contact her…