How to detect a swipe gesture on webview

Use a GestureDetector with a custom web view..

webView.setGestureDetector(new GestureDetector(new CustomeGestureDetector()));   

the gesture detector:

private class CustomeGestureDetector extends SimpleOnGestureListener {      
    @Override
    public boolean onFling(MotionEvent e1, MotionEvent e2, float velocityX, float velocityY) {
        if(e1 == null || e2 == null) return false;
        if(e1.getPointerCount() > 1 || e2.getPointerCount() > 1) return false;
        else {
            try { // right to left swipe .. go to next page
                if(e1.getX() - e2.getX() > 100 && Math.abs(velocityX) > 800) {
                    //do your stuff
                    return true;
                } //left to right swipe .. go to prev page
                else if (e2.getX() - e1.getX() > 100 && Math.abs(velocityX) > 800) {
                    //do your stuff
                    return true;
                } //bottom to top, go to next document
                else if(e1.getY() - e2.getY() > 100 && Math.abs(velocityY) > 800 
                        && webView.getScrollY() >= webView.getScale() * (webView.getContentHeight() - webView.getHeight())) {
                    //do your stuff
                    return true;
                } //top to bottom, go to prev document
                else if (e2.getY() - e1.getY() > 100 && Math.abs(velocityY) > 800 ) {
                    //do your stuff
                    return true;
                } 
            } catch (Exception e) { // nothing
            }
            return false;
        }
    }
}

The custom web view:

public final class CustomWebView extends WebView {

private GestureDetector gestureDetector;

/**
 * @param context
 * @param attrs
 * @param defStyle
 */
public CustomWebView(Context context) {
    super(context);
}

/**
 * @param context
 * @param attrs
 * @param defStyle
 */
public CustomWebView(Context context, AttributeSet attrs) {
    super(context, attrs);
}

/**
 * @param context
 * @param attrs
 * @param defStyle
 */
public CustomWebView(Context context, AttributeSet attrs, int defStyle) {
    super(context, attrs, defStyle);
}

/* 
 * @see android.webkit.WebView#onScrollChanged(int, int, int, int)
 */
@Override
protected void onScrollChanged(int l, int t, int oldl, int oldt) {
    super.onScrollChanged(l, t, oldl, oldt);
}

/* 
 * @see android.webkit.WebView#onTouchEvent(android.view.MotionEvent)
 */
@Override
public boolean onTouchEvent(MotionEvent ev) {
    return gestureDetector.onTouchEvent(ev) || super.onTouchEvent(ev);
}

public void setGestureDetector(GestureDetector gestureDetector) {
    this.gestureDetector = gestureDetector;
}
}

As said by Андрей Москвичёв:

It can be solved without deriving WebView class, by registering touch listener: webview.setOnTouchListener(new OnTouchListener() ...) and calling gestureDetector.onTouchEvent(ev) from it.

The 'webView.setGestureDetector(new GestureDetector(' solution is deprecated.

The next solution is simple to implement. Scrolling, clicking on links still works.

1 - Add this to your webView:

webView.setOnTouchListener( new OnSwipeWebviewTouchListener( getActivity(), this));

The 'this' means that you have your calling class implement the TouchListener interface methods. You can implement YOUR navigation via the methods onSwipeRight() and onSwipeLeft().

2 - Use this OnTouchListener:

public class OnSwipeWebviewTouchListener implements View.OnTouchListener {
    private final GestureDetector gestureDetector;
    public OnSwipeWebviewTouchListener(Context ctx, TouchListener touchListener) {
        gestureDetector = new GestureDetector(ctx, new GestureListener(touchListener));
    }
    @Override
    public boolean onTouch(View v, MotionEvent event) {
        return gestureDetector.onTouchEvent(event);
    }
    private final class GestureListener extends GestureDetector.SimpleOnGestureListener {
        private TouchListener touchListener;
        GestureListener(TouchListener touchListener) {
            super();
            this.touchListener = touchListener;
        }
        @Override
        public boolean onDown(MotionEvent e) {
            return false;  // THIS does the trick
        }
        @Override
        public boolean onFling(MotionEvent e1, MotionEvent e2, float velocityX, float velocityY) {
            boolean result = false;
            try {
                float diffY = e2.getY() - e1.getY();
                float diffX = e2.getX() - e1.getX();
                if (Math.abs(diffX) > Math.abs(diffY)) {
                    // You can customize these settings, so 30 is an example
                    if (Math.abs(diffX) > 30 && Math.abs(velocityX) > 30) {
                        if (diffX > 0) {
                            touchListener.onSwipeRight();
                        } else {
                            touchListener.onSwipeLeft();
                        }
                        result = true;
                    }
                } else {
                    result = false;
                }
            } catch (Exception exception) {
                exception.printStackTrace();
            }
            return result;
        }
    }
}

3 - An example of the TouchListner could be:

public interface TouchListener  {
    default void onSwipeLeft() {
        Logger.d( "Swipe left");
    }
    default void onSwipeRight() {
        Logger.d( "Swipe right");
    }
}