How to have a UISwipeGestureRecognizer AND UIPanGestureRecognizer work on the same view

You're going to want to set one of the two UIGestureRecognizer's delegates to an object that makes sense (likely self) then listen, and return YES for this method:

- (BOOL) gestureRecognizer:(UIGestureRecognizer *)gestureRecognizer
         shouldRecognizeSimultaneouslyWithGestureRecognizer:
                            (UIGestureRecognizer *)otherGestureRecognizer {
    return YES;
}

This method is called when recognition of a gesture by either gestureRecognizer or otherGestureRecognizer would block the other gesture recognizer from recognizing its gesture. Note that returning YES is guaranteed to allow simultaneous recognition; returning NO, on the other hand, is not guaranteed to prevent simultaneous recognition because the other gesture recognizer's delegate may return YES.


By default, when the user attempts to swipe, the gesture is interpreted as a pan. This is because a swiping gesture meets the necessary conditions to be interpreted as a pan (a continuous gesture) before it meets the necessary conditions to be interpreted as a swipe (a discrete gesture).

You need to indicate a relationship between two gesture recognizers by calling the requireGestureRecognizerToFail: method on the gesture recognizer that you want to delay

[self.panRecognizer requireGestureRecognizerToFail:self.swipeRecognizer];

Using a pan recognizer to detect swipping and panning:

- (void)setupRecognizer
{
    UIPanGestureRecognizer* panSwipeRecognizer = [[UIPanGestureRecognizer alloc] initWithTarget:self action:@selector(handlePanSwipe:)];
    // Here you can customize for example the minimum and maximum number of fingers required
    panSwipeRecognizer.minimumNumberOfTouches = 2;
    [targetView addGestureRecognizer:panSwipeRecognizer];
}

#define SWIPE_UP_THRESHOLD -1000.0f
#define SWIPE_DOWN_THRESHOLD 1000.0f
#define SWIPE_LEFT_THRESHOLD -1000.0f
#define SWIPE_RIGHT_THRESHOLD 1000.0f

- (void)handlePanSwipe:(UIPanGestureRecognizer*)recognizer
{
    // Get the translation in the view
    CGPoint t = [recognizer translationInView:recognizer.view];
    [recognizer setTranslation:CGPointZero inView:recognizer.view];

    // TODO: Here, you should translate your target view using this translation
    someView.center = CGPointMake(someView.center.x + t.x, someView.center.y + t.y);

    // But also, detect the swipe gesture
    if (recognizer.state == UIGestureRecognizerStateEnded)
    {
        CGPoint vel = [recognizer velocityInView:recognizer.view];

        if (vel.x < SWIPE_LEFT_THRESHOLD)
        {
            // TODO: Detected a swipe to the left
        }
        else if (vel.x > SWIPE_RIGHT_THRESHOLD)
        {
            // TODO: Detected a swipe to the right
        }
        else if (vel.y < SWIPE_UP_THRESHOLD)
        {
            // TODO: Detected a swipe up
        }
        else if (vel.y > SWIPE_DOWN_THRESHOLD)
        {
            // TODO: Detected a swipe down
        }
        else
        {
            // TODO:
            // Here, the user lifted the finger/fingers but didn't swipe.
            // If you need you can implement a snapping behaviour, where based on the location of your         targetView,
            // you focus back on the targetView or on some next view.
            // It's your call
        }
    }
}