iOS: selectable Text edit menu flickers on long-press release (handleLongPress ignores gesture.state)
Description
On iOS 16+ (New Architecture), long-pressing a <Text selectable> shows the edit menu ("Copy"), and the moment the finger is lifted the menu animates out and immediately back in. It is a ~100 ms blink on every release, on every selectable Text.
Cause: RCTParagraphComponentView.handleLongPress: does not check gesture.state. A UILongPressGestureRecognizer fires its action on Began and again on Ended (and on Changed when the finger moves). The second call re-runs [_editMenuInteraction presentEditMenuWithConfiguration:], and UIKit dismisses the presented menu before presenting the new one.
- (void)handleLongPress:(UILongPressGestureRecognizer *)gesture
{
if (@available(iOS 16.0, macCatalyst 16.0, *)) {
CGPoint location = [gesture locationInView:self];
UIEditMenuConfiguration *config = [UIEditMenuConfiguration configurationWithIdentifier:nil sourcePoint:location];
if (_editMenuInteraction) {
[_editMenuInteraction presentEditMenuWithConfiguration:config];
}
} else {
// the legacy branch is guarded by `menuController.isMenuVisible`; the iOS 16 branch is not
Fix (verified, see below):
- (void)handleLongPress:(UILongPressGestureRecognizer *)gesture
{
if (gesture.state != UIGestureRecognizerStateBegan) {
return;
}
...
Happy to open a PR if that helps.
Steps to reproduce
- Render
<Text selectable>Some text</Text>in any screen (New Architecture, iOS 16+). - Long-press the text until "Copy" appears.
- Lift the finger.
Expected: the menu stays. Actual: the menu disappears and reappears at touch-up.
Evidence: screen recording of the simulator at 20 fps, OCR of each frame for "Copy" (C = menu visible, . = not):
before: ....CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC..CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC....
after: ....CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC....
The gap in the first line is the release (Maestro longPressOn, ~3 s hold). The second line is the same scenario with the one-line guard compiled in (built from source, ios.buildReactNativeFromSource in Expo).
React Native Version
0.86.2 (code unchanged in 0.87.0)
Affected Platforms
Runtime - iOS
Output of npx @react-native-community/cli info
System: macOS 26.2
Xcode: 26.4
iOS Simulator: iPhone 17 Pro
react-native: 0.86.2 (Expo SDK 57), New Architecture, Hermes
Stacktrace or Logs
n/a (visual)
MANDATORY Reproducer
Any <Text selectable> on iOS 16+ with the New Architecture reproduces it; the bug is fully explained by the source above (the action handler is invoked for every gesture state).
Screenshots and Videos
Frame-by-frame OCR trace above.
Source: react/react-native