---
name: Swipe
slug: swipe
category: interaction
status: published
created: 2026-08-21T00:00:00.000Z
modified: 2026-08-21T00:00:00.000Z
definition: A quick directional drag of a finger across the screen, faster and
  coarser than a drag, usually without a specific on-screen target.
aliases:
  - name: paging swipe
    source: material
  - name: swipe gesture
    source: community
  - name: flick
    source: community
tags:
  - touch
relations:
  contrastWith:
    - fling
    - pan
    - edge-swipe
  variantOf: []
  partOf: []
  seeAlso:
    - swipe-actions
implementations:
  - system: material
    name: Swipe
    url: https://m1.material.io/patterns/gestures.html
sources:
  - title: "Material Design: Gestures"
    url: https://m1.material.io/patterns/gestures.html
  - title: "Material Design 3: Gestures"
    url: https://m3.material.io/foundations/interaction/gestures
demo: inline
exhibit: false
useWhen: a fast directional stroke, not a controlled drag
---

A swipe and a drag are the same physical movement judged by different criteria. A drag
is aimed: the object follows the finger and the release point decides the outcome, so
slowness costs nothing and precision is the point. A swipe is thrown: what matters is
the direction and the speed, and the finger usually lets go over nothing in particular.
That is why a swipeable surface has to accept two ways of committing. Past a distance
threshold (a quarter of the page is a common figure), or under it but fast enough that
the velocity carries it, the surface completes the move; short and slow, it springs back
to where it started.

The direction is the vocabulary. Horizontal swipes page between siblings, which is how
carousels, photo viewers, and tab strips move, and the platforms reserve the screen edges
for going back. Vertical swipes scroll, and a vertical swipe near the bottom edge is the
system's own. Everything left over is a shortcut on a row: revealing the actions parked
behind an inbox item is a swipe with a target, which is the case where the two families
meet. Whatever the direction, the surface should follow the finger while the gesture is
live, because a swipe that only reveals its result on release is indistinguishable from
a control that did not notice.

Swipes are invisible. Nothing on screen says a surface can be thrown, so a swipe can be
an accelerator and never the only route: page indicators earn their place partly by
saying there is somewhere to go, and a peek of the next page at the screen edge does the
same job better. The gesture also collides with things it does not own. A horizontal
swipe inside a vertical scroller needs a decision about which axis wins (the web spells
this `touch-action`, and taking the whole gesture with `touch-action: none` means taking
responsibility for scrolling too), and a swipe that starts within a few millimetres of
the screen edge probably belongs to the operating system rather than to your page.

The word gets stretched to the mouse, where it is really a drag: a pointer does not
flick, and a trackpad's two-finger swipe arrives as a scroll or a history gesture rather
than as anything a page can listen for. If a behaviour matters on the desktop, put arrows
or a keyboard route beside it rather than hoping the gesture translates.