Which is Better React Swipe Libraries?
react-swipeable vs react-swipeable-views vs react-swipe
1 Year
react-swipeablereact-swipeable-viewsreact-swipe
What's React Swipe Libraries?

React swipe libraries provide functionality for implementing swipe gestures in React applications, allowing for intuitive navigation and interaction. These libraries are particularly useful for mobile and touch-enabled devices, enhancing user experience by enabling swipe-based transitions and interactions. Each library offers unique features and design principles that cater to different use cases, from simple swipe detection to complex view transitions.

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react-swipeable461,7181,99796.8 kB31a year agoMIT
react-swipeable-views194,2594,460-833 years agoMIT
react-swipe18,2211,659134 kB14-MIT
Feature Comparison: react-swipeable vs react-swipeable-views vs react-swipe

Swipe Detection

  • react-swipeable: react-swipeable offers a more robust swipe detection mechanism, allowing for customizable swipe handlers for up, down, left, and right swipes. It provides hooks for managing swipe events, enabling developers to create more interactive and responsive components that react to user gestures.
  • react-swipeable-views: react-swipeable-views integrates swipe detection with view transitions, allowing users to swipe between different views seamlessly. It handles the complexity of managing multiple views and provides built-in animations, making it ideal for creating swipeable carousels or tabbed interfaces.
  • react-swipe: react-swipe focuses solely on detecting swipe gestures, providing a simple API to handle swipe events. It allows developers to define swipe thresholds and directions, making it easy to implement basic swipe functionality without additional complexity.

Animation and Transitions

  • react-swipeable: react-swipeable does not provide animations out of the box, but it allows developers to easily integrate custom animations based on swipe events. This gives developers the freedom to create their own visual feedback for swipe actions, enhancing user experience.
  • react-swipeable-views: react-swipeable-views comes with built-in support for animations and transitions between views. It provides a smooth user experience with animated transitions, making it easy to create visually appealing swipeable interfaces without additional coding for animations.
  • react-swipe: react-swipe does not include built-in animations, focusing instead on the detection of swipe gestures. Developers can implement their own animations based on swipe events, providing flexibility but requiring additional effort to achieve smooth transitions.

Ease of Use

  • react-swipeable: react-swipeable offers a user-friendly API that is easy to integrate into existing components. Its flexibility and customization options make it a great choice for developers looking for a balance between simplicity and control over swipe interactions.
  • react-swipeable-views: react-swipeable-views is designed for ease of use when creating swipeable views. Its API is intuitive, allowing developers to quickly set up swipeable components with minimal configuration, making it ideal for projects that require rapid development.
  • react-swipe: react-swipe is straightforward to use, making it suitable for developers who need a simple solution for swipe detection. Its minimalistic approach allows for quick implementation, especially for small projects or prototypes.

Performance

  • react-swipeable: react-swipeable is optimized for performance, allowing for efficient swipe detection without significant impact on application speed. Its design ensures that swipe events are handled smoothly, even in complex components.
  • react-swipeable-views: react-swipeable-views is built with performance in mind, providing smooth transitions and animations while managing multiple views. It efficiently handles rendering and updates, making it suitable for applications with dynamic content.
  • react-swipe: react-swipe is lightweight and performs well in scenarios where only swipe detection is needed. Its minimalistic design ensures low overhead, making it suitable for applications where performance is a critical concern.

Community and Support

  • react-swipeable: react-swipeable has a growing community and offers good documentation, making it easier for developers to find support and examples. Its flexibility has led to increased adoption in various projects.
  • react-swipeable-views: react-swipeable-views enjoys a strong community and extensive documentation, providing ample resources for developers. Its popularity in building swipeable interfaces ensures that developers can find support and examples easily.
  • react-swipe: react-swipe has a smaller community compared to the other two libraries, which may result in limited resources and support. However, it is still a viable option for straightforward swipe detection needs.
How to Choose: react-swipeable vs react-swipeable-views vs react-swipe
  • react-swipeable: Opt for react-swipeable if you require a more comprehensive approach to swipe detection with customizable handlers for different swipe directions. This package provides a flexible API that allows for easy integration of swipe gestures into existing components, making it suitable for applications that need more control over swipe interactions.
  • react-swipeable-views: Select react-swipeable-views if you are building a carousel or tabbed interface that requires smooth transitions between views. This library is designed for managing swipeable views with built-in support for animations and transitions, making it perfect for applications that need a polished and visually appealing user interface.
  • react-swipe: Choose react-swipe if you need a lightweight solution focused on detecting swipe gestures without additional overhead. It is ideal for simple use cases where you want to implement swipe functionality quickly without complex UI transitions.
README for react-swipeable

React Swipeable — Formidable, We build the modern web

React swipe event handler hook

npm downloads npm version build status gzip size maintenance status

Edit react-swipeable image carousel

Github Pages Demo

Api

Use the hook and set your swipe(d) handlers.

const handlers = useSwipeable({
  onSwiped: (eventData) => console.log("User Swiped!", eventData),
  ...config,
});
return <div {...handlers}> You can swipe here </div>;

Spread handlers onto the element you wish to track swipes on.

Props / Config Options

Event handler props

{
  onSwiped,       // After any swipe   (SwipeEventData) => void
  onSwipedLeft,   // After LEFT swipe  (SwipeEventData) => void
  onSwipedRight,  // After RIGHT swipe (SwipeEventData) => void
  onSwipedUp,     // After UP swipe    (SwipeEventData) => void
  onSwipedDown,   // After DOWN swipe  (SwipeEventData) => void
  onSwipeStart,   // Start of swipe    (SwipeEventData) => void *see details*
  onSwiping,      // During swiping    (SwipeEventData) => void
  onTap,          // After a tap       ({ event }) => void

  // Pass through callbacks, event provided: ({ event }) => void
  onTouchStartOrOnMouseDown, // Called for `touchstart` and `mousedown`
  onTouchEndOrOnMouseUp,     // Called for `touchend` and `mouseup`
}

Details

  • onSwipeStart - called only once per swipe at the start and before the first onSwiping callback
    • The first property of the SwipeEventData will be true

Configuration props and default values

{
  delta: 10,                             // min distance(px) before a swipe starts. *See Notes*
  preventScrollOnSwipe: false,           // prevents scroll during swipe (*See Details*)
  trackTouch: true,                      // track touch input
  trackMouse: false,                     // track mouse input
  rotationAngle: 0,                      // set a rotation angle
  swipeDuration: Infinity,               // allowable duration of a swipe (ms). *See Notes*
  touchEventOptions: { passive: true },  // options for touch listeners (*See Details*)
}

delta

delta can be either a number or an object specifying different deltas for each direction, [left, right, up, down], direction values are optional and will default to 10;

{
  delta: { up: 20, down: 20 } // up and down ">= 20", left and right default to ">= 10"
}

swipeDuration

A swipe lasting more than swipeDuration, in milliseconds, will not be considered a swipe.

  • It will also not trigger any callbacks and the swipe event will stop being tracked
  • Defaults to Infinity for backwards compatibility, a sensible duration could be something like 250
{
  swipeDuration: 250 // only swipes under 250ms will trigger callbacks
}

touchEventOptions

Allows the user to set the options for the touch event listeners( currently only passive option ).

  • touchstart, touchmove, and touchend event listeners
  • Defaults to { passive: true }
  • this provides users full control of if/when they want to set passive
    • https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/EventTarget/addEventListener#options
  • preventScrollOnSwipe option supersedes touchEventOptions.passive for touchmove event listener

Swipe Event Data

All Event Handlers are called with the below event data, SwipeEventData.

{
  event,          // source event
  initial,        // initial swipe [x,y]
  first,          // true for the first event of a tracked swipe
  deltaX,         // x offset (current.x - initial.x)
  deltaY,         // y offset (current.y - initial.y)
  absX,           // absolute deltaX
  absY,           // absolute deltaY
  velocity,       // √(absX^2 + absY^2) / time - "absolute velocity" (speed)
  vxvy,           // [ deltaX/time, deltaY/time] - velocity per axis
  dir,            // direction of swipe (Left|Right|Up|Down)
}

None of the props/config options are required.

Hook details

  • Hook use requires react >= 16.8.3
  • The props contained in handlers are currently ref and onMouseDown
    • Please spread handlers as the props contained in it could change as react changes event listening capabilities

preventScrollOnSwipe details

This prop prevents scroll during swipe in most cases. Use this to stop scrolling in the browser while a user swipes.

Swipeable will call e.preventDefault() internally in an attempt to stop the browser's touchmove event default action (mostly scrolling).

NOTE: preventScrollOnSwipe option supersedes touchEventOptions.passive for the touchmove event listener

Example scenario:

If a user is swiping right with props { onSwipedRight: userSwipedRight, preventScrollOnSwipe: true } then e.preventDefault() will be called, but if the user was swiping left then e.preventDefault() would not be called.

e.preventDefault() is only called when:

  • preventScrollOnSwipe: true
  • trackTouch: true
  • the users current swipe has an associated onSwiping or onSwiped handler/prop

Please experiment with the example app to test preventScrollOnSwipe.

passive listener details

Swipeable adds the passive event listener option, by default, to internal uses of touch addEventListener's. We set the passive option to false only when preventScrollOnSwipe is true and only to touchmove. Other listeners will retain passive: true.

When preventScrollOnSwipe is:

  • true => el.addEventListener('touchmove', cb, { passive: false })
  • false => el.addEventListener('touchmove', cb, { passive: true })

Here is more information on react's long running passive event issue.

We previously had issues with chrome lighthouse performance deducting points for not having passive option set so it is now on by default except in the case mentioned above.

If, however, you really need all of the listeners to be passive (for performance reasons or otherwise), you can prevent all scrolling on the swipeable container by using the touch-action css property instead, see below for an example.

Version 7 Updates and migration

If upgrading from v6 refer to the release notes and the migration doc.

FAQs

How can I add a swipe listener to the document?

Example by @merrywhether #180

Example codesandbox with swipeable on document and nested swipe

https://codesandbox.io/s/react-swipeable-document-swipe-example-1yvr2v

const { ref } = useSwipeable({
  ...
}) as { ref: RefCallback<Document> };

useEffect(() => {
  ref(document);
  // Clean up swipeable event listeners
  return () => ref({});
});

Note: Issues can arise if you forget to clean up listeners - #332

How to share ref from useSwipeable?

Example ref passthrough, more details #189:

const MyComponent = () => {
  const handlers = useSwipeable({ onSwiped: () => console.log('swiped') })

  // setup ref for your usage
  const myRef = React.useRef();

  const refPassthrough = (el) => {
    // call useSwipeable ref prop with el
    handlers.ref(el);

    // set myRef el so you can access it yourself
    myRef.current = el;
  }

  return (<div {...handlers} ref={refPassthrough} />
}

How to use touch-action to prevent scrolling?

Sometimes you don't want the body of your page to scroll along with the user manipulating or swiping an item. Or you might want all of the internal event listeners to be passive and performant.

You can prevent scrolling via preventScrollOnSwipe, which calls event.preventDefault() during onTouchMove. But there may be a simpler, more effective solution, which has to do with a simple CSS property.

touch-action is a CSS property that sets how an element's region can be manipulated by a touchscreen user. See the documentation for touch-action to determine which property value to use for your particular use case.

Static example

const handlers = useSwipeable({
  onSwiped: (eventData) => console.log("User Swiped!", eventData),
  ...config,
});

return <div {...handlers} style={{ touchAction: 'pan-y' }}>Swipe here</div>;

This explanation and example borrowed from use-gesture's wonderful docs.

Dynamic example

const MySwipeableComponent = props => {
  const [stopScroll, setStopScroll] = useState(false);

  const handlers = useSwipeable({
    onSwipeStart: () => setStopScroll(true),
    onSwiped: () => setStopScroll(false)
  });

  return <div {...handlers} style={{ touchAction: stopScroll ? 'none' : 'auto' }}>Swipe here</div>;
};

This is a somewhat contrived example as the final outcome would be similar to the static example. However, there may be cases where you want to determine when the user can scroll based on the user's swiping action along with any number of variables from state and props.

License

MIT

Contributing

Please see our contributions guide.

Maintainers

Project Maintenance

Maintenance Status

Active: Formidable is actively working on this project, and we expect to continue for work for the foreseeable future. Bug reports, feature requests and pull requests are welcome.