javascript - Prevent swiping between web pages in iPad Safari

Question

Swiping from the left and right edges of my iPad's Safari browser, moves between the currently open web pages. Is there any way to prevent it?

I have tried to add touchstart and touchmove handlers on the edge of the page that stopPropagation and preventDefault, but they seem to have no effect, nor does touch-action CSS.

A similar question was asked in 2014 with replies to the negative: iOS 7 - is there a way to disable the swipe back and forward functionality in Safari?

Is there a workround now in 2018?

Answer 1

In iOS 13.4+ you can now preventDefault on "touchstart"

Let's say we have a <div class="block-swipe-nav"> on the page that spans the entire width of the viewport and we want to prevent swipe navigation on that element.

const element = document.querySelector('.block-swipe-nav');

element.addEventListener('touchstart', (e) => {

    // is not near edge of view, exit
    if (e.pageX > 10 && e.pageX < window.innerWidth - 10) return;

    // prevent swipe to navigate gesture
    e.preventDefault();
});

I've written a short article on blocking swipe with some additional information.