[Android] RNGH's LongPress Detection disrupts ScrollView (and AndroidX.ViewPager2, likely any Scrollable?) Swipe Gesture

[DmitriyGalyanov]

Description

I initially reported this Issue in react-native-pager-view, but already closed as I found it's not scoped to PagerView exclusively

Starting RNGH LongPress while scrolling non-RNGH Scrollable disrupts Scrollable Control

Possibly it disrupts any long-lasting non-RNGH Gesture, I didn't check yet

Steps to reproduce

1. Start swiping through ReactNative.ScrollView with pagingEnabled set to true (or react-native-pager-view.PagerView, which uses AndroidX.ViewPager2 under the Hood)
2. LongPress at a ReactNativeGestureHandler's GestureDetector configured to handle LongPresses
3. Swipe Gesture loses Control over Scrolling, but Scrollable doesn't recognize it

• in case of AndroidX.ViewPager2 its ViewPager2.OnPageChangeCallback.onPageScrollStateChanged doesn't get called AND Pager stays in dragging State, not settling (till next Swipe Gesture or Tab Press)
• in case of ReactNative.ScrollView its onScrollEndDrag doesn't get called AND Snap-to-Page doesn't occur (till next Swipe Gesture)

[Videos are below]

A link to a Gist, an Expo Snack or a link to a repository based on this template that reproduces the bug.

In first Repro I'm using React Navigation's MaterialTopTabNavigator for simplicity, but Issue lays in ViewPager2
In second Repro I'm using ReactNative.ScrollView

Messages are shown for LongPresses to be easily noticeable, LongPress' Handlers might be empty

Repro with PagerView

FILE.2026-01-14.18.36.41.mp4

Repro with ReactNative.ScrollView

FILE.2026-01-15.15.04.47.mp4

Gesture Handler version

2.27.2

React Native version

0.80.2

Platforms

Android

JavaScript runtime

Hermes

Workflow

React Native (without Expo)

Architecture

New Architecture (Fabric)

Build type

None

Device

Real device

Device model

Pixel 6a (Android 16)

Acknowledgements

Yes

[DmitriyGalyanov]

I've tried ReactNative.ScrollView and Reanimated.ScrollView (which uses ReactNative.ScrollView under the Hood) in same Scenario (replaced PagerView with ScrollView with pagingEnabled) – result is the same – Swipe Gesture loses Control

But ReactNativeGestureHandler.ScrollView works as expected (Recognizer begins, but doesn't start, thus not interrupting Swipe)

Seems like ViewPager has nothing to do with it, as it's an Issue with RNGH and Native Communication (?)

[tomekzaw]

@DmitriyGalyanov You need to use ScrollView from react-native-gesture-handler.

If you need PagerView, you need to wrap it with <NativeViewGestureHandler>...</NativeViewGestureHandler> like this (RNGH v1 API):

<NativeViewGestureHandler>
  <PagerView />
</NativeViewGestureHandler>

Or using RNGH v2 API:

const nativeGesture = useMemo(() => Gesture.Native(), []);

<GestureDetector gesture={nativeGesture}>
  <PagerView />
</GestureDetector>

In RNGH v3 it will become:

const nativeGesture = useNativeGesture({});

<GestureDetector gesture={nativeGesture}>
  <PagerView />
</GestureDetector>

[m-bert]

Hi @DmitriyGalyanov! I've checked your reproduction with Pager and it seems to work correctly (I've used RN 0.80.2 and Gesture Handler 2.27.2).

Also, @tomekzaw solution is the preferred one (it does basically the same thing as importing components from our library, e.g. ScrollView).

I'll go ahead and close this now. If you run into any more trouble or have follow-up questions, feel free to ask!

[zyestin]

I ran into a very similar Android-only issue in a production app and wanted to share a concrete variant + workaround in case it helps others.

Environment:

• React Native: 0.81.5
• react-native-gesture-handler: ~2.28.0
• react-native-pager-view: 6.9.1
• @shopify/flash-list: 2.0.2
• Android real device

UI structure:

• PagerView (react-native-pager-view) is used for horizontal branch switching.
• The center page renders a video end overlay.
• Inside that overlay there is a FlashList v2 card pool.
• FlashList uses a custom scroll component backed by RNGH ScrollView.

Reproduction:

1. Open the overlay inside PagerView.
2. Touch down on passive content inside the FlashList, such as plain text, avatar/name/time, card blank space, spacing between cards, or the FlashList ListHeaderComponent.
3. Hold for about 1-2 seconds.
4. Start dragging vertically.

Expected:

The inner FlashList should scroll.

Actual:

The vertical drag is ignored. The content does not move. Repeating the same action keeps failing.

Interesting observations:

• The same card pool page works fine when rendered standalone, outside PagerView.
• Touching an interactive area first, such as a Pressable, a button, or a RNGH-controlled slider, does not reproduce the issue as easily.
• Switching FlashList to RNGH ScrollView, adding nestedScrollEnabled, wrapping PagerView with Gesture.Native(), and wiring simultaneousHandlers helped with gesture coordination but did not fix this specific “press passive content, hold, then drag” case.
• Setting shouldActivateOnStart on the RNGH ScrollView fixed the vertical drag, but it broke all child taps/sliders and horizontal pager swipes because the ScrollView became ACTIVE immediately on ACTION_DOWN.

The workaround that finally fixed it for us was to add a lightweight JS responder owner only around passive content surfaces, not on the ScrollView itself:

function PassiveTouchSeed({ children, ...props }) {
  return (
    <View
      {...props}
      accessible={false}
      collapsable={false}
      onStartShouldSetResponder={() => true}
      onResponderTerminationRequest={() => true}
    >
      {children}
    </View>
  )
}

We wrapped:

• the FlashList ListHeaderComponent root
• each card item’s passive surface / spacing

After that:

• long-pressing passive text/blank/avatar areas and then dragging vertically works
• horizontal PagerView swiping still works
• child Pressable buttons and RNGH sliders still work

My interpretation is that in this topology, passive content areas do not establish an owner for the ACTION_DOWN sequence, and after a long hold Android/PagerView/RNGH can end up in a state where the later vertical drag is not handed to the inner ScrollView. Providing a weak responder owner for passive surfaces avoids that, while still allowing termination so ScrollView/PagerView/child gestures can take over.

Does this match the expected limitation around Android native touch ownership with PagerView / non-passive scrollables? Would you consider documenting this pattern, or is there a more canonical RNGH-side solution?