PencilKit on visionOS Doesn’t Support Left-Handed Users? How Can We Customize Hand Roles?

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Created Apr ’25

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I’m building a visionOS app that uses PencilKit for drawing. Currently, PencilKit defaults to using the right hand for drawing and the left hand for panning, with no apparent way to change this behavior.

Some of my users are left-handed, and they naturally want to draw with their left hand and pan with their right. However, PencilKit doesn’t seem to support this interaction pattern.

Is there a way to customize which hand does what in PencilKit on visionOS? Or have I missed some API or workaround that would allow support for left-handed users?

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Answer 1

DTS Engineer OP

Apple

Apr ’25

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Currently the interaction is based on a dominant and off hand paradigm where the off hand pans and the dominant hand draws. The dominant hand should be the most recent hand used to interact with the canvas - if the user pinches or touches the canvas with their off hand, it should become the dominant hand. This is not something decided in PencilKit but a system wide interaction paradigm.

If this is not the interaction were hoping for, please feel welcome to file an enhancement request. You can file an enhancement request using Feedback Assistant. Once you file the request, please post the Feedback number here and we will route it to the appropriate team internally.

If you're not familiar with how to file enhancement requests, take a look at Bug Reporting: How and Why?

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