Android: How to handle right to left swipe gestures

Question

I want my app to recognize when a user swipes from right to left on the phone screen.

How to do this?

Answer 1

You don't need complicated calculations. It can be done just by using OnGestureListener interface from GestureDetector class.

Inside onFling method you can detect all four directions like this:

MyGestureListener.java:

import android.util.Log;
import android.view.GestureDetector;
import android.view.MotionEvent;

public class MyGestureListener implements GestureDetector.OnGestureListener{

    private static final long VELOCITY_THRESHOLD = 3000;

    @Override
    public boolean onDown(final MotionEvent e){ return false; }

    @Override
    public void onShowPress(final MotionEvent e){ }

    @Override
    public boolean onSingleTapUp(final MotionEvent e){ return false; }

    @Override
    public boolean onScroll(final MotionEvent e1, final MotionEvent e2, final float distanceX,
                        final float distanceY){ return false; }

    @Override
    public void onLongPress(final MotionEvent e){ }

    @Override
    public boolean onFling(final MotionEvent e1, final MotionEvent e2,
                       final float velocityX,
                       final float velocityY){

        if(Math.abs(velocityX) < VELOCITY_THRESHOLD 
                    && Math.abs(velocityY) < VELOCITY_THRESHOLD){
            return false;//if the fling is not fast enough then it's just like drag
        }

        //if velocity in X direction is higher than velocity in Y direction,
        //then the fling is horizontal, else->vertical
        if(Math.abs(velocityX) > Math.abs(velocityY)){
            if(velocityX >= 0){
                Log.i("TAG", "swipe right");
            }else{//if velocityX is negative, then it's towards left
                Log.i("TAG", "swipe left");
            }
        }else{
            if(velocityY >= 0){
                Log.i("TAG", "swipe down");
            }else{
                Log.i("TAG", "swipe up");
            }
        }

        return true;
    }
}

usage:

GestureDetector mDetector = new GestureDetector(MainActivity.this, new MyGestureListener());

view.setOnTouchListener(new View.OnTouchListener(){
    @Override
    public boolean onTouch(final View v, final MotionEvent event){
        return mDetector.onTouchEvent(event);
    }
});