Swipe

The act of swiping, in the context of social media, refers to the fundamental gesture made by a user on a touchscreen device—like a smartphone or tablet—when they draw their finger across the glass of the device in a specific direction to produce an action or gain access to various options, features, or content presented by an app or platform. This intuitive and seamless method of gestural interface has propelled the app economy into a touchscreen world. The fundamental action has become synonymous with exploring a number of social media apps, with new and exciting uses of this mechanism more frequently appearing as part of the evolving mobile interface.

Swiping has serious advantages over tapping in terms of speed and the kinds of visual transitions it makes possible. Most young people may think of swiping as just an action move increasingly associated with 嗯dating apps. But for many social media app developers and users, swiping has now become the preferred and more physically engaging way to unearth the kinds of content recommendations and matches that a user is looking for.