Gesture recognition in Apple Watch (WatchKit)

Question

I'm looking for how to detect gestures in an Apple Watch app, via the WatchKit SDK. In iOS we can use some code like this:

- (void)viewDidLoad
{
    ...
    UISwipeGestureRecognizer *swipeRightBlack = [[UISwipeGestureRecognizer alloc] initWithTarget:self action:@selector(slideToRightWithGestureRecognizer:)];
    swipeRightBlack.direction = UISwipeGestureRecognizerDirectionRight;
    [self.viewBlack addGestureRecognizer:swipeRightBlack];
}

...but this doesn't work in the Apple Watch simulator. Is there a way to override the default gesture actions using WatchKit, or just recognize them when the OS receives them?

We don't need to ask here if there what i'm looking for in the little iwatch guide :) thanks! — Smile2Life, Feb 03 '15 at 11:22

score 6 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 13 '16 at 21:06

watchOS 3 adds third-party support for WKGestureRecognizer.

Apple has also updated their WatchKit Catalog sample code to include a WKInterfaceController gesture example demonstrating how to use various gestures on the Apple Watch.

Here's a snippet from their code showing two of the actions for gestures configured in Storyboard:

class GestureDetailController : WKInterfaceController {
    @IBOutlet var tapGroup: WKInterfaceGroup!
    @IBOutlet var panGroup: WKInterfaceGroup!

    ...

    @IBAction func tapRecognized(_ sender: AnyObject) {
        tapGroup.setBackgroundColor(UIColor.green())
        scheduleReset()
    }

    @IBAction func panRecognized(_ sender: AnyObject) {
        if let panGesture = sender as? WKPanGestureRecognizer {
            panGroup.setBackgroundColor(UIColor.green())
            panLabel.setText("offset: \(NSStringFromCGPoint(panGesture.translationInObject()))")
            scheduleReset()
        }
    }

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 17 '14 at 11:43

3

As far as I can tell, there is no way to do it. Whole Apple Watch is super limited when it comes to what can you do with it. I suppose that kind of makes sense since it should be just peripheral to your main app but it's a bit too limited for my liking.

answered Dec 17 '14 at 11:43

Kegluneq

796
5
15

2

There will be a full app API coming during 2015. The current support is just the first step. – Jesper Dec 17 '14 at 11:45
hmm that was expected, as listed here https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/ios/documentation/General/Conceptual/WatchKitProgrammingGuide/CustomzingthePushNotificationInterface.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40014969-CH8-SW1, just looking for someone that made a hack or something that can help before the official WatchKit realize :D – Smile2Life Dec 17 '14 at 12:28
Apple have confirmed that 'full native apps' will be available later in 2015. I don't think we can assume that the API will necessarily look like what we have in iOS. The current WatchKit API is designed around the need for the Watch to only be displaying the interface, but that doesn't necessarily mean that we will have full access to everything even when apps are running natively. Hopefully, of course. Time will tell. – Duncan Babbage Jan 11 '15 at 02:17

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 29 '14 at 14:36

Do you read the iWatch Guide? Apples say´s:

Gestures: The system handles all gestures on your behalf, using them to implement standard behaviors:

Vertical swipes scroll the current screen.
Horizontal swipes display the previous or next page in a page-based interface.
Left edge swipes navigate back to the parent interface controller.
Taps indicate selection or interaction. Taps are handled by the system and reported to your WatchKit extension’s action methods.

Apple Watch does not support multi-finger gestures such as pinches.

...taken from Apple iWatch Human Interface Guidelines. So i don´t think this "hack" give you the same behavior as in iOS.

@RajuIstalla: There is simply no access to gestures at all for 3rd party apps. Even the **Force Touch** gesture can only be used to initiate context menus at screen level. — Richard Bao, May 23 '15 at 22:14

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 11 '15 at 02:13

Apple automatically provides to the user swipe gestures to navigate forward and back through your controllers, and to scroll the views the Watch has laid out. All of this is done without requiring any code or gesture configuration by the third party developer. All we have ability to do is define the segues and layout of the objects in Interface Builder and the OS takes care of the rest.

There is no direct access to swipes or other gestures or tap locations in WatchKit at present, and there is no reason to believe that is going to change before the release of the Watch.

It is unclear whether Apple may be willing to enable this in the future, or whether they will never open this up to developers, but they are encouraging developers to submit enhancement requests via their bug reporter. Be sure to describe your desired use case and the problem you're trying to solve, as well as what your proposed solution is, as there may be a different facility they can provide that will solve your problem case even if it does so in a different way than we expect.

And those "automatic" swipe gestures are buggy as hell. All of the applications I tried, including the one I'm developing has its navigation stack messed up whenever I use the interactive pop gesture. Once you go back with swiping, you cannot go to another screen properly. — Cihan Tek, Jul 07 '15 at 07:55

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Jan 10 '15 at 02:59

0

You can't do it yet. The alternative option right now would be to use buttons inside the screen to perform your swipe action.

answered Jan 10 '15 at 02:59

user3193508

1
2

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Feb 02 '16 at 23:35

Im using Xcode 7.2 currently coding for watchos2, for my app I only want the button to perform a method when they double tap within .5 seconds, if users only single tap then it won't perform the action. For example:

In my .h

#import <WatchKit/WatchKit.h>
#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>

@interface InterfaceController : WKInterfaceController

- (IBAction)btnActivate;
@property (unsafe_unretained, nonatomic) IBOutlet WKInterfaceButton *activateBtn;

@end

At the top of my .m file I declared:

    int taps = 1;

- (IBAction)btnActivate {

            taps = taps + 1;

            if (taps == 2){
                [activateBtn setBackgroundColor:[UIColor grayColor]];
                [self performSelector:@selector(tapOne:) withObject:self afterDelay:0.5];

            }
            else if (taps == 3){
                [self performSelector:@selector(tapTwo:) withObject:self afterDelay:0];
                [activateBtn setEnabled:NO];
                [activateBtn setBackgroundColor:[UIColor redColor]];

            } else {
               //Do other things here if you want 
            }
        }
- (void) tapOne: (id) sender{

            if (taps == 2){

                 [self performSelector:@selector(afterTapDone:) withObject:self afterDelay:1];
            } else {

            }

        }


- (void) tapTwo: (id) sender {

        //Perform button actions here when user double taps 

            [self performSelector:@selector(afterTapDone:) withObject:self afterDelay:10];


        }

- (void) afterTapDone: (id) sender {
            taps = 1;
            [activateBtn setEnabled:YES];
            [activateBtn setBackgroundColor:[UIColor colorWithRed:0/255.0f green:174/255.0f blue:239/255.0f alpha:1.0f]];
            [activateBtn setTitle:@"Activate"];

        }

Of course you can tweak the afterDelays etc, and clean the code up but this is how I was able to get double taps working

Gesture recognition in Apple Watch (WatchKit)

6 Answers6

Linked