Long press

A gesture where you hold your finger on an element for a set time, usually 500 ms or more, until an action fires.

Also called: long press, long tap, press and hold, tap and hold, touch and hold, hold, hold a finger, hold down, keep pressing, long touch, force press

What it is for

In mobile interfaces it is the counterpart of a mouse right-click. It opens a context menu, starts multi-select or switches on edit mode. Nothing on screen hints that the gesture exists.

Where you see it

• OS home screens — entering edit mode for app icons
• Messengers — opening the reactions menu on a message
• Media galleries — selecting several files

What it is called in code

• long press
• touchstart + timer
• contextmenu

See also

• Context menu — A hidden menu that appears when you interact with a particular object: right-click it, or press and hold.
• Swipe actions — A swipe is a finger sliding across the screen. Swipe a list row left or right to delete or archive it, an email for example.
• Like button — A one-tap way to show you approve of something, or to save it to your own collection.