Gesture state

Every time a handler is called, it will get passed a gesture state that includes the source event and adds multiple attributes such as velocity, previous value, and much more.

States structure doesn't vary much across different gestures: the only distinction comes from the pinch gesture which handles distance and angle values (how distant your fingers are on screen, and what is their angle), when all other hooks deal with x and y coordinates.

Gesture state attributes

With the exception of xy and vxvy, all the attributes below are common to all gestures.

const bind = useXXXX(state => {
  const {
    event,       // the source event
    xy,          // [x,y] values (pointer position or scroll offset)
    previous,    // previous xy
    initial,     // xy value when the gesture started
    intentional, // is the movement intentional -- new in v8
    movement,    // last gesture offset (xy - initial)
    delta,       // movement delta (movement - previous movement)
    offset,      // offset since the first gesture
    lastOffset,  // offset when the last gesture started
    vxvy,        // momentum of the gesture per axis
    velocity,    // absolute velocity of the gesture
    distance,    // offset distance
    direction,   // direction per axis
    startTime,   // gesture start time
    elapsedTime, // gesture elapsed time
    timeStamp,   // timestamp of the event
    first,       // true when it's the first event
    last,        // true when it's the last event
    active,      // true when the gesture is active
    memo,        // value returned by your handler on its previous run
    cancel,      // function you can call to interrupt some gestures
    canceled,    // whether the gesture was canceled (drag and pinch)
    down,        // true when a mouse button or touch is down
    buttons,     // number of buttons pressed
    touches,     // number of fingers touching the screen
    args,        // arguments you passed to bind
    ctrlKey,     // true when control key is pressed
    altKey,      // "      "  alt     "      "
    shiftKey,    // "      "  shift   "      "
    metaKey,     // "      "  meta    "      "
    locked,      // whether document.pointerLockElement is set
    dragging,    // is the component currently being dragged
    moving,      // "              "              "  moved
    scrolling,   // "              "              "  scrolled
    wheeling,    // "              "              "  wheeled
    pinching     // "              "              "  pinched
  } = state
})

pinch state attributes

The state attributes for pinch include all of the above (with the exception of xy and vxvy) plus the one below:

const bind = usePinch(state => {
  const {
    da,          // [d,a] absolute distance and angle of the two pointers
    vdva,        // momentum of the gesture of distance and rotation
    origin,      // coordinates of the center between the two touch event
  } = state
})

drag state attributes

The drag gesture state adds a few attributes which can help you understand the user intent.

const bind = useDrag(state => {
  const {
    swipe,     // [swipeX, swipeY] 0 if no swipe detected, -1 or 1 otherwise
    tap,       // is the drag assimilated to a tap
  } = state
})

Attributes explained

movement and offset

movement and offset are the attributes you're going to use most of the time when dragging or pinching. They represent relative values of the gesture, in contrast with xy and da which are absolute values of your pointers. Relative values are handy as you usually use the transform style attribute to move your components, which itself is relative to the component natural position.

The difference between the two

In 👊 React UseGesture, we call gesture the act of the user initiating and terminating an interaction. movement expresses the gesture movement, while offset is the sum of all gesture movements on the same component. When you start dragging a component, movement is reset to [0,0], while offset keeps its previous value.

In practical terms, movement is handy when your element returns back to its original position at the end of the gesture. Here is an example for offset, where the component stays where you left it:

function OffsetExample() {
  const [{ x, y }, api] = useSpring(() => ({ x: 0, y: 0 }))
  const bind = useDrag(({ offset: [x, y] }) => api.start({ x, y }))
  return <animated.div {...bind()} style={{ x, y }} />
}

memo

memo stores the value returned by the previous call of your handler. The most common usecase for using memo should be simplified by using initial.

cancel

cancel is a function that imperatively stops the current gesture. Here is an example on how you might want to use cancel with the drag gesture.

If you drag the blue square over the pink zone, you'll notice that the gesture is canceled and the blue square goes back to its original position. This is very simply triggered using the code below.

function CancelExample() {
  const [{ x }, api] = useSpring(() => ({ x: 0 }))
  const bind = useDrag(({ active, movement: [mx], cancel }) => {
    if (mx > 200) cancel()
    api.start({ x: active ? mx : 0, immediate: active })
  })

  return <animated.div {...bind()} style={{ x }} />
}

This is obviously very simple abstract logic, but please go over the Examples section for more compelling use cases. Note that only drag and pinch gestures are cancellable (calling cancel on other gestures won't do anything).

swipe (drag only)

swipe is a convenient state attribute for the drag gesture that will help you detect swipes. swipe is a vector which both components are either -1, 0 or 1. The component stays to 0 until a swipe is detected. 1 or -1 indicates the direction of the swipe (left or right on the horizontal axis, top or bottom on the vertical axis).

In the example above, the blue square will move left or right when you swipe it. Here is the code to make it happen:

function SwipeExample() {
  const [position, setPosition] = React.useState(0)
  const { x } = useSpring({ x: position * 200 })
  const bind = useDrag(({ swipe: [swipeX] }) => {
    // position will either be -1, 0 or 1
    setPosition(p => Math.min(Math.max(-1, p + swipeX), 1))
  })

  return <animated.div {...bind()} style={{ x }} />
}

Here are the conditions for a swipe to be detected on the x axis:

• The drag gesture is over.
• The drag gesture didn't last more than 220ms.
• movement[0] is superior to the swipeDistance[0] option.
• vxvy[0] is superior to the swipeVelocity[0] option.

Visit the swipe options documentation for more info about how to configure swipe detection to your needs.

tap (drag only)

tap is a boolean state attribute for the drag gesture that will be set to true if the drag gesture can be assimilated to a tap or click. In other words, tap will be true on mouse or touch release only when the drag displacement is inferior to 3 pixels.

You'll usually want to use the tap attribute in conjunction with the filterTaps option.