agent-skills/skills/vercel-react-native-skills/rules/animation-gesture-detector-press.md

title, impact, impactDescription, tags

title	impact	impactDescription	tags
Use GestureDetector for Animated Press States	MEDIUM	UI thread animations, smoother press feedback	animation, gestures, press, reanimated

Use GestureDetector for Animated Press States

For animated press states (scale, opacity on press), use GestureDetector with Gesture.Tap() and shared values instead of Pressable's onPressIn/onPressOut. Gesture callbacks run on the UI thread as worklets—no JS thread round-trip for press animations.

Incorrect (Pressable with JS thread callbacks):

import { Pressable } from 'react-native'
import Animated, {
  useSharedValue,
  useAnimatedStyle,
  withTiming,
} from 'react-native-reanimated'

function AnimatedButton({ onPress }: { onPress: () => void }) {
  const scale = useSharedValue(1)

  const animatedStyle = useAnimatedStyle(() => ({
    transform: [{ scale: scale.value }],
  }))

  return (
    <Pressable
      onPress={onPress}
      onPressIn={() => (scale.value = withTiming(0.95))}
      onPressOut={() => (scale.value = withTiming(1))}
    >
      <Animated.View style={animatedStyle}>
        <Text>Press me</Text>
      </Animated.View>
    </Pressable>
  )
}

Correct (GestureDetector with UI thread worklets):

import { Gesture, GestureDetector } from 'react-native-gesture-handler'
import Animated, {
  useSharedValue,
  useAnimatedStyle,
  withTiming,
  interpolate,
  runOnJS,
} from 'react-native-reanimated'

function AnimatedButton({ onPress }: { onPress: () => void }) {
  // Store the press STATE (0 = not pressed, 1 = pressed)
  const pressed = useSharedValue(0)

  const tap = Gesture.Tap()
    .onBegin(() => {
      pressed.set(withTiming(1))
    })
    .onFinalize(() => {
      pressed.set(withTiming(0))
    })
    .onEnd(() => {
      runOnJS(onPress)()
    })

  // Derive visual values from the state
  const animatedStyle = useAnimatedStyle(() => ({
    transform: [
      { scale: interpolate(withTiming(pressed.get()), [0, 1], [1, 0.95]) },
    ],
  }))

  return (
    <GestureDetector gesture={tap}>
      <Animated.View style={animatedStyle}>
        <Text>Press me</Text>
      </Animated.View>
    </GestureDetector>
  )
}

Store the press state (0 or 1), then derive the scale via interpolate. This keeps the shared value as ground truth. Use runOnJS to call JS functions from worklets. Use .set() and .get() for React Compiler compatibility.

Reference: Gesture Handler Tap Gesture