UITapGestureRecognizer - make it work on touch down, not touch up?

Create your custom TouchDownGestureRecognizer subclass and implement gesture in touchesBegan:

TouchDownGestureRecognizer.h

#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>

@interface TouchDownGestureRecognizer : UIGestureRecognizer

@end

TouchDownGestureRecognizer.m

#import "TouchDownGestureRecognizer.h"
#import <UIKit/UIGestureRecognizerSubclass.h>

@implementation TouchDownGestureRecognizer
-(void)touchesBegan:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event{
    if (self.state == UIGestureRecognizerStatePossible) {
        self.state = UIGestureRecognizerStateRecognized;
    }
}

-(void)touchesMoved:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event{
    self.state = UIGestureRecognizerStateFailed;
}

-(void)touchesEnded:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event{
    self.state = UIGestureRecognizerStateFailed;
}


@end

implementation:

#import "TouchDownGestureRecognizer.h"
    TouchDownGestureRecognizer *touchDown = [[TouchDownGestureRecognizer alloc] initWithTarget:self action:@selector(handleTouchDown:)];
    [yourView addGestureRecognizer:touchDown];

-(void)handleTouchDown:(TouchDownGestureRecognizer *)touchDown{
    NSLog(@"Down");
}

---

Swift implementation:

import UIKit
import UIKit.UIGestureRecognizerSubclass

class TouchDownGestureRecognizer: UIGestureRecognizer
{
    override func touchesBegan(touches: Set<UITouch>, withEvent event: UIEvent)
    {
        if self.state == .Possible
        {
            self.state = .Recognized
        }
    }

    override func touchesMoved(touches: Set<UITouch>, withEvent event: UIEvent)
    {
        self.state = .Failed
    }

    override func touchesEnded(touches: Set<UITouch>, withEvent event: UIEvent)
    {
        self.state = .Failed
    }
}

---

Here is the Swift syntax for 2017 to paste:

import UIKit.UIGestureRecognizerSubclass

class SingleTouchDownGestureRecognizer: UIGestureRecognizer {
    override func touchesBegan(_ touches: Set<UITouch>, with event: UIEvent) {
        if self.state == .possible {
            self.state = .recognized
        }
    }
    override func touchesMoved(_ touches: Set<UITouch>, with event: UIEvent) {
        self.state = .failed
    }
    override func touchesEnded(_ touches: Set<UITouch>, with event: UIEvent) {
        self.state = .failed
    }
}

Note that this is a drop-in replacement for UITap. So in code like...

func add(tap v:UIView, _ action:Selector) {
    let t = UITapGestureRecognizer(target: self, action: action)
    v.addGestureRecognizer(t)
}

you can safely swap to....

func add(hairtriggerTap v:UIView, _ action:Selector) {
    let t = SingleTouchDownGestureRecognizer(target: self, action: action)
    v.addGestureRecognizer(t)
}

Testing shows it will not be called more than once. It works as a drop-in replacement; you can just swap between the two calls.

Use a UILongPressGestureRecognizer and set its minimumPressDuration to 0. It will act like a touch down during the UIGestureRecognizerStateBegan state.

For Swift 4+

func setupTap() {
    let touchDown = UILongPressGestureRecognizer(target:self, action: #selector(didTouchDown))
    touchDown.minimumPressDuration = 0
    view.addGestureRecognizer(touchDown)
}

@objc func didTouchDown(gesture: UILongPressGestureRecognizer) {
    if gesture.state == .began {
        doSomething()
    }
}

For Objective-C

-(void)setupLongPress
{
   self.longPress = [[UILongPressGestureRecognizer alloc] initWithTarget:self action:@selector(didLongPress:)];
   self.longPress.minimumPressDuration = 0;
   [self.view addGestureRecognizer:self.longPress];
}

-(void)didLongPress:(UILongPressGestureRecognizer *)gesture
{
   if (gesture.state == UIGestureRecognizerStateBegan){
      [self doSomething];
   }
}

This is another solution. Create subclass of UIControl. You can use it like UIView even in Storyboard because UIControl is subclass of UIView.

class TouchHandlingView: UIControl {
}

And addTarget to it:

@IBOutlet weak var mainView: TouchHandlingView!
...

mainView.addTarget(self, action: "startAction:", forControlEvents: .TouchDown)
...

Then the designated action will be called like UIButton:

func startAction(sender: AnyObject) {
    print("start")
}

Swift (without subclassing)

Here is a Swift version similar to Rob Caraway's Objective-C answer.

The idea is to use a long press gesture recognizer with the minimumPressDuration set to zero rather than using a tap gesture recognizer. This is because the long press gesture recognizer reports touch began events while the tap gesture does not.

import UIKit
class ViewController: UIViewController {

    @IBOutlet weak var myView: UIView!

    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()

        // Add "long" press gesture recognizer
        let tap = UILongPressGestureRecognizer(target: self, action: #selector(tapHandler))
        tap.minimumPressDuration = 0
        myView.addGestureRecognizer(tap)
    }

    // called by gesture recognizer
    @objc func tapHandler(gesture: UITapGestureRecognizer) {

        // handle touch down and touch up events separately
        if gesture.state == .began {
            // do something...
            print("tap down")
        } else if gesture.state == .ended { // optional for touch up event catching
            // do something else...
            print("tap up")
        }
    }
}