Three-finger drag

Three-finger drag is a feature available on touchpads that emulates logical button presses if three fingers are moving on the touchpad.

Three-finger drag is independent from Tap-to-click behaviour though some specific behaviors may change when both features are enabled. For example, with tapping disabled a three-finger gesture will virtually always be a three-finger drag. With tapping enabled a three finger gesture may be a three finger drag and a short delay is required to disambiguate between the two.

The exact behavior of three-finger drag is implementation defined and may subtly change. As a general rule, the following constraints can be expected:

• three fingers down and movement trigger a button down and subsequent motion events (i.e. a drag)

• releasing one finger while keeping two fingers down will keep the drag and not switch to Two-finger scrolling.

• releasing two fingers while keeping one finger down will end the drag (and thus release the button) and switch to normal pointer motion

• releasing all three fingers and putting three fingers back on the touchpad immediately will keep the drag (i.e. behave as if the fingers were never lifted)

  • if tapping is enabled: a three finger tap immediately after a three-finger drag will not tap, the user needs to wait past the timeout to three-finger tap

• releasing all three fingers and putting one or two fingers back on the touchpad will end the drag (and thus release the button) and proceed with pointer motion or two-finger scrolling, if applicable

  • if tapping is enabled: a one or two finger tap immediately after a three-finger drag will trigger a one or two finger tap. The user does not have to wait past the drag release timeout