Framer Motion Gestures

When to Use This Skill

Apply when implementing gesture-driven animations: drag, pan, tap, hover, focus, or touch interactions. When the user asks about drag-and-drop, interactive elements, or gesture-based UI in Framer Motion.

Related skills: For core animation use framer-motion-core; for variants use framer-motion-variants; for layout animations use framer-motion-layout.

Drag

Enable dragging with the drag prop:

<motion.div
  drag="x"
  dragConstraints={{ left: -100, right: 100 }}
  whileDrag={{ scale: 1.1, cursor: "grabbing" }}
/>

Drag Props

Drag Constraints

<motion.div
  drag
  dragConstraints={{
    left: -100,
    right: 100,
    top: -50,
    bottom: 50
  }}
/>

Ref-based Constraints

function Draggable() {
  const constraintsRef = useRef(null);

  return (
    <>
      <motion.div
        ref={constraintsRef}
        style={{
          width: 500,
          height: 500,
          backgroundColor: "#eee"
        }}
      />
      <motion.div
        drag
        dragConstraints={constraintsRef}
      />
    </>
  );
}

Pan

Pan is similar to drag but for pointer/touch:

<motion.div
  drag="x"
  onDrag={(e, info) => {
    console.log("Position:", info.point);
    console.log("Velocity:", info.velocity);
  }}
/>

Pan vs Drag

• Drag: Mouse/touch with visual feedback, momentum, and constraints
• Pan: Lower-level pointer tracking without momentum

Tap (whileTap)

Animation when pressed:

<motion.button
  whileTap={{ scale: 0.95, opacity: 0.8 }}
  whileHover={{ scale: 1.05 }}
>
  Click me
</motion.button>

Hover (whileHover)

Animation on hover:

<motion.div
  whileHover={{ scale: 1.1, backgroundColor: "#ff0000" }}
  style={{ width: 100, height: 100, backgroundColor: "#00ff00" }}
/>

onHoverStart / onHoverEnd

<motion.div
  onHoverStart={() => console.log("Hover started")}
  onHoverEnd={() => console.log("Hover ended")}
/>

Focus (whileFocus)

Animation when focused (keyboard):

<motion.input
  whileFocus={{ scale: 1.05, borderColor: "#00ff00" }}
  style={{ borderWidth: 2 }}
/>

Drag with Spring Physics

<motion.div
  drag="x"
  dragConstraints={{ left: -200, right: 200 }}
  dragTransition={{
    type: "spring",
    stiffness: 300,
    damping: 20,
    mass: 1
  }}
/>

Drag Controls with Constraints

function DraggableBox() {
  const constraintsRef = useRef(null);

  return (
    <>
      <motion.div
        ref={constraintsRef}
        style={{
          width: 500,
          height: 500,
          backgroundColor: "#f0f0f0"
        }}
      />
      {[1, 2, 3].map(i => (
        <motion.div
          key={i}
          drag
          dragConstraints={constraintsRef}
          dragMomentum={false}
          whileDrag={{ scale: 1.1 }}
        />
      ))}
    </>
  );
}

Swipe Detection

function Swipeable() {
  const x = useMotionValue(0);
  const { scrollYProgress } = useScroll();

  const opacity = useTransform(x, [-100, 0, 100], [0, 1, 0]);

  return (
    <motion.div
      style={{ x, opacity }}
      drag="x"
      dragConstraints={{ left: 0, right: 0 }}
      dragElastic={1}
    />
  );
}

Gesture State Info

Callbacks receive PointInfo and DragInfo:

onDrag={(e, info) => {
  info.point      // { x, y } position
  info.velocity   // { x, y } velocity
  info.offset     // { x, y } offset from start
}}

Best practices

• ✅ Use dragConstraints to keep elements within bounds.
• ✅ Use dragElastic for bounce-back effects.
• ✅ Use whileDrag for visual feedback during drag.
• ✅ Use dragMomentum for natural continuation.
• ✅ Use dragTransition with spring for physics-based drag.
• ✅ Use refs for constraints when dragging within a container.

Do Not

• ❌ Use drag without dragConstraints if the element should stay within bounds.
• ❌ Forget that drag events only fire after the pointer moves a threshold.
• ❌ Use excessive dragElastic — it can cause visual glitches.
• ❌ Animate conflicting properties during drag (e.g., scale and x).

Learn More

https://www.framer.com/motion/gestures/ https://www.framer.com/motion/drag/