Apple Pencil Double Tap

A Flutter plugin for Apple Pencil double-tap and squeeze gestures on compatible iPads, with iOS integration that also allows iPhone Duo. Gesture availability depends on the Apple Pencil model.

Receive native UIKit Apple Pencil interactions through Dart callbacks in your Flutter iOS app.

Features

Detect Apple Pencil double-tap gestures (Apple Pencil 2nd generation or Apple Pencil Pro)
Detect Apple Pencil squeeze gestures (Apple Pencil Pro only)
Gesture callbacks with hover pose information when available
Access user's preferred action settings from iOS Settings app
Native UIKit registration on iPad and iPhone, including iPhone Duo
Swift Package Manager support

Device and Apple Pencil compatibility

Device and Apple Pencil	Double-tap	Squeeze
Compatible iPad + Apple Pencil (2nd generation)	Yes	No
Compatible iPad + Apple Pencil Pro	Yes	Yes, with iPadOS 17.5+
iPhone Duo + Apple Pencil (USB-C)	No	No
Apple Pencil (1st generation) or Apple Pencil (USB-C)	No	No

The plugin no longer restricts UIPencilInteraction registration to the iPad device idiom. It can be included in iPhone Duo apps, but this does not add double-tap or squeeze to Apple Pencil (USB-C). Apple's iPhone Duo announcement lists Apple Pencil (USB-C) support as coming later in 2026; that model has neither gesture. See Apple's Pencil feature comparison for hardware capabilities.

This package listens for UIKit gesture callbacks. It does not implement drawing, handwriting recognition, raw stylus input, or standalone hover tracking. No gesture callbacks are expected on hardware without double-tap or squeeze. iPhone Duo hardware has not been tested with this release.

Requirements

iOS/iPadOS 15.0 or later
Apple Pencil (2nd generation) for double-tap
Apple Pencil Pro for squeeze gesture (requires iPadOS 17.5+)
Dart 3.13.0 or later
Flutter 3.47.0 or later
Xcode 15.4 or later for the iOS 17.5 Pencil APIs; your Flutter version may require a newer Xcode

Installation

In the dependencies: section of your pubspec.yaml, add the following line:

apple_pencil_double_tap: ^2.0.0

Then run:

flutter pub get

Swift Package Manager

This plugin supports both CocoaPods and Swift Package Manager for iOS integration.

Swift Package Manager is enabled by default in current Flutter releases. If your local configuration has disabled it, enable it with:

flutter config --enable-swift-package-manager

Usage

Basic Setup

import 'package:apple_pencil_double_tap/apple_pencil_double_tap.dart';

final applePencil = ApplePencilDoubleTap();

applePencil.listen(
    // Before iPadOS 17.5 (legacy API)
    v1Callback: (PreferredAction preferredAction) {
        print('Double tap detected. Preferred user action: $preferredAction');
    },
    // For iPadOS >=17.5 (new API with hover pose)
    onTapAction: (TapAction action) {
        print('TapAction: $action');
        print('Preferred action: ${action.preferredAction}');
        if (action.zOffset != null) {
            print('Hover z-offset: ${action.zOffset}');
        }
    },
    // For iPadOS >=17.5 - Apple Pencil Pro squeeze gesture
    onSqueeze: (SqueezeAction action) {
        print('SqueezeAction: $action');
        print('Phase: ${action.squeezePhase}');
        print('Preferred action: ${action.preferredAction}');
    },
    onError: (e) {
        print('Error: $e');
    },
);

// Call from your widget's dispose method when done
applePencil.dispose();

Handling Squeeze Events

The squeeze gesture is a continuous interaction available only on Apple Pencil Pro. It provides phase information to track the gesture lifecycle:

applePencil.listen(
    onSqueeze: (SqueezeAction action) {
        switch (action.squeezePhase) {
            case SqueezePhase.began:
                print('Squeeze started');
                break;
            case SqueezePhase.changed:
                print('Squeeze ongoing');
                break;
            case SqueezePhase.ended:
                print('Squeeze completed - perform action');
                break;
            case SqueezePhase.cancelled:
                print('Squeeze was cancelled');
                break;
            case SqueezePhase.unknown:
                print('Unknown phase');
                break;
        }
    },
);

API Reference