[iOS] Reduce sensitivity of swipe to open sidebar gesture

Feature requests
,
1

Use case or problem

The sidebars in the iOS app trigger way too easily. In two scenarios in particular:

  1. During text selection, especially if you do the tap on word & swipe to expand selection gesture instead of a slower drag the selection pins method.
  2. When scrolling through notes, particularly with slightly diagonal movements.

Despite the documentation stating these gestures work “from the edge of the screen,” the sidebars can currently be triggered by swiping anywhere on the note surface, meaning you can open the right sidebar by swiping left at the very left edge, and vice versa.

Proposed Solution

  1. Outright reduce the sensitivity, or
  2. Add a sensitivity adjustment setting, or
  3. Provide option to disable swipe gestures–for one sidebar or both. (The right sidebar can currently be opened without swiping if you long press on the triple dot icon in the top right.)

This would improve the accuracy of both text selection and scrolling interactions on iOS.

Current workaround (optional)

Be very cautious when selecting text to prevent false triggers.

Related posts

how to turn off all slide features on mobile? : r/ObsidianMD

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Updated the documentation to indicate you can swipe left/right from anywhere, not just screen edge.

During text selection, especially if you do the tap on word & swipe to expand selection gesture instead of a slower drag the selection pins method

I’m not able to reproduce this. As soon as I start a text selection, I can no longer open the sidebar. Maybe some more info could help? Are you in reading mode or edit mode? Is there a pause before you swipe or are you swiping immediately?

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What I’ve gotten used to anywhere on iOS is:

#1. Double tap on any word
#2. Instantly, with no delay whatsoever, swipe left or right to move selection

If you try it elsewhere on iOS e.g. in Apple Notes, you’ll see what I mean. This allows to select text in a real quick way.

As soon as I start a text selection, I can no longer open the sidebar.

You’re correct. The problem is that I do the #2 gesture before the selection pins even have time to appear, which causes a sidebar to open.

I’m talking about live preview/source view here since you can’t double tap to select in reading view.

But this is a minor issue. I learned to simply pause for a split second between actions #1 and #2 in Obsidian.

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