About messages from UITapGestureRecognizer

The UITapGestureRecognizer only fires when the gesture state is UIGestureRecognizerStateEnded

If you want to use a gesture recogniser to detect the start and end of a press, use the UILongPressGestureRecognizer, with the minumumPressDuration set to 0

- (void)touchesBegan:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event{

      NSDate *date1 = [NSDate date]; //user touches the screen


}

-(void)touchesEnded:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event{

      NSDate *date2 = [NSDate date];  //user lifts his finger away from the screen

}