Drag, swipe, and fling

The draggable modifier is the high-level entry point to drag gestures in a single orientation, and reports the drag distance in pixels.

It's important to note that this modifier is similar to scrollable, in that it only detects the gesture. You need to hold the state and represent it on screen by, for example, moving the element via the offset modifier:

@Composable
private fun DraggableText() {
    var offsetX by remember { mutableStateOf(0f) }
    Text(
        modifier = Modifier
            .offset { IntOffset(offsetX.roundToInt(), 0) }
            .draggable(
                orientation = Orientation.Horizontal,
                state = rememberDraggableState { delta ->
                    offsetX += delta
                }
            ),
        text = "Drag me!"
    )
}
GesturesSnippets.kt

If you need to control the whole dragging gesture, consider using the drag gesture detector instead, via the pointerInput modifier.

@Composable
private fun DraggableTextLowLevel() {
    Box(modifier = Modifier.fillMaxSize()) {
        var offsetX by remember { mutableStateOf(0f) }
        var offsetY by remember { mutableStateOf(0f) }

        Box(
            Modifier
                .offset { IntOffset(offsetX.roundToInt(), offsetY.roundToInt()) }
                .background(Color.Blue)
                .size(50.dp)
                .pointerInput(Unit) {
                    detectDragGestures { change, dragAmount ->
                        change.consume()
                        offsetX += dragAmount.x
                        offsetY += dragAmount.y
                    }
                }
        )
    }
}
GesturesSnippets.kt

A UI element being dragged by a finger press

Swiping

The swipeable modifier lets you drag elements which, when released, animate towards typically two or more anchor points defined in an orientation. A common usage for this is to implement a ‘swipe-to-dismiss’ pattern.

It's important to note that this modifier does not move the element, it only detects the gesture. You need to hold the state and represent it on screen by, for example, moving the element via the offset modifier.

The swipeable state is required in the swipeable modifier, and can be created and remembered with rememberSwipeableState(). This state also provides a set of useful methods to programmatically animate to anchors (see snapTo, animateTo, performFling, and performDrag) as well as properties to observe the dragging progress.

The swipe gesture can be configured to have different threshold types, such as FixedThreshold(Dp) and FractionalThreshold(Float), and they can be different for each anchor point from-to combination.

For more flexibility, you can configure the resistance when swiping past the bounds and, also, the velocityThreshold which will animate a swipe to the next state, even if the positional thresholdshave not been reached.

@OptIn(ExperimentalMaterialApi::class)
@Composable
private fun SwipeableSample() {
    val width = 96.dp
    val squareSize = 48.dp

    val swipeableState = rememberSwipeableState(0)
    val sizePx = with(LocalDensity.current) { squareSize.toPx() }
    val anchors = mapOf(0f to 0, sizePx to 1) // Maps anchor points (in px) to states

    Box(
        modifier = Modifier
            .width(width)
            .swipeable(
                state = swipeableState,
                anchors = anchors,
                thresholds = { _, _ -> FractionalThreshold(0.3f) },
                orientation = Orientation.Horizontal
            )
            .background(Color.LightGray)
    ) {
        Box(
            Modifier
                .offset { IntOffset(swipeableState.offset.value.roundToInt(), 0) }
                .size(squareSize)
                .background(Color.DarkGray)
        )
    }
}
GesturesSnippets.kt

A UI element responding to a swipe gesture

Previous
Scroll
Next
Multi-touch gestures