# UITouch An object representing the location, size, movement, and force of a touch occurring on the screen. ``` @MainActor class UITouch ``` ## Overview You access touch objects through [`UIEvent`](/documentation/UIKit/UIEvent) objects passed into responder objects for event handling. A touch object includes accessors for: - The view or window in which the touch occurred - The location of the touch within the view or window - The approximate radius of the touch - The force of the touch (on devices that support 3D Touch or Apple Pencil) A touch object also contains a timestamp indicating when the touch occurred, an integer representing the number of times the user tapped the screen, and the phase of the touch in the form of a constant that describes whether the touch began, moved, or ended, or whether the system canceled the touch. To learn how to work with swipes, read [Handling Swipe and Drag Gestures](https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/EventHandling/Conceptual/EventHandlingiPhoneOS/multitouch_background/multitouch_background.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40009541-CH5-SW21) in [Event Handling Guide for UIKit Apps](https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/EventHandling/Conceptual/EventHandlingiPhoneOS/index.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40009541). A touch object persists throughout a multi-touch sequence. You may store a reference to a touch while handling a multi-touch sequence, as long as you release that reference when the sequence ends. If you need to store information about a touch outside of a multi-touch sequence, copy that information from the touch. The [`gestureRecognizers`](/documentation/UIKit/UITouch/gestureRecognizers) property of a touch contains the gesture recognizers currently handling the touch. Each gesture recognizer is an instance of a concrete subclass of [`UIGestureRecognizer`](/documentation/UIKit/UIGestureRecognizer). ## Topics ### Getting the location of a touch [`location(in:)`](/documentation/UIKit/UITouch/location(in:)-8rd36) Returns the current location of the touch in the coordinate system of the given view. [`previousLocation(in:)`](/documentation/UIKit/UITouch/previousLocation(in:)-22sws) Returns the previous location of the touch in the coordinate system of the given view. [`view`](/documentation/UIKit/UITouch/view) The view to which touches are being delivered, if any. [`window`](/documentation/UIKit/UITouch/window) The window in which the touch initially occurred. [`majorRadius`](/documentation/UIKit/UITouch/majorRadius) The radius (in points) of the touch. [`majorRadiusTolerance`](/documentation/UIKit/UITouch/majorRadiusTolerance) The tolerance (in points) of the touch’s radius. [`preciseLocation(in:)`](/documentation/UIKit/UITouch/preciseLocation(in:)) Returns a precise location for the touch, when available. [`precisePreviousLocation(in:)`](/documentation/UIKit/UITouch/precisePreviousLocation(in:)) Returns a precise previous location for the touch, when available. ### Getting touch attributes [`tapCount`](/documentation/UIKit/UITouch/tapCount) The number of times the finger was tapped for this given touch. [`timestamp`](/documentation/UIKit/UITouch/timestamp) The time when the touch occurred or when it was last mutated. [`type`](/documentation/UIKit/UITouch/type) The type of the touch. [`UITouch.TouchType`](/documentation/UIKit/UITouch/TouchType) The type of touch received. [`phase`](/documentation/UIKit/UITouch/phase-swift.property) The phase of the touch. [`UITouch.Phase`](/documentation/UIKit/UITouch/Phase-swift.enum) The phase of a touch event. [`force`](/documentation/UIKit/UITouch/force) The force of the touch, where a value of `1.0` represents the force of an average touch (predetermined by the system, not user-specific). [`maximumPossibleForce`](/documentation/UIKit/UITouch/maximumPossibleForce) The maximum possible force for a touch. [`altitudeAngle`](/documentation/UIKit/UITouch/altitudeAngle) The altitude (in radians) of the stylus. [`azimuthAngle(in:)`](/documentation/UIKit/UITouch/azimuthAngle(in:)) Returns the azimuth angle (in radians) of the stylus. [`azimuthUnitVector(in:)`](/documentation/UIKit/UITouch/azimuthUnitVector(in:)) Returns a unit vector that points in the direction of the azimuth of the stylus. [`rollAngle`](/documentation/UIKit/UITouch/rollAngle) A value that represents the current barrel-roll angle of Apple Pencil. ### Managing estimated touch attributes [`estimatedProperties`](/documentation/UIKit/UITouch/estimatedProperties) A set of touch properties whose values contain only estimates. [`estimatedPropertiesExpectingUpdates`](/documentation/UIKit/UITouch/estimatedPropertiesExpectingUpdates) The set of touch properties for which updated values are expected in the future. [`UITouch.Properties`](/documentation/UIKit/UITouch/Properties) A bit mask of touch properties that may get updated. [`estimationUpdateIndex`](/documentation/UIKit/UITouch/estimationUpdateIndex) An index number that lets you correlate an updated touch with the original touch. ### Getting a touch object’s gesture recognizers [`gestureRecognizers`](/documentation/UIKit/UITouch/gestureRecognizers) The gesture recognizers that are receiving the touch object. ### Working with touch events in SpriteKit [`location(in:)`](/documentation/UIKit/UITouch/location(in:)-44h4k) Returns the current location of the touch in the coordinate system of the given node. [`previousLocation(in:)`](/documentation/UIKit/UITouch/previousLocation(in:)-ea29) Returns the previous location of the touch in the coordinate system of the given node. --- Copyright © 2026 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. | [Terms of Use](https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/terms/site.html) | [Privacy Policy](https://www.apple.com/privacy/privacy-policy)