[Android] Allow GestureStateManager.activate from the first onTouchesDown

[m-bert]

Description

GestureStateManager.activate is ignored when called from the first onTouchesDown of a gesture. The touch event is dispatched to JS before onHandle calls begin(), so the handler is still UNDETERMINED when the module checks for BEGAN and returns. The docs promise activation once the gesture has received touches, and their first state manager example does exactly this.

This PR makes the guard ask for a tracked pointer instead of BEGAN: a handler that is undetermined but already tracks a pointer is moved to BEGAN (so onBegin is delivered) and then activated. Handlers without pointers, or already active or finished, are still ignored.

Test plan

Tested on the following code:

import React from 'react';
import { StyleSheet, View } from 'react-native';
import {
  GestureDetector,
  GestureStateManager,
  useManualGesture,
} from 'react-native-gesture-handler';

// Android + iOS. `GestureStateManager.activate` from the first `onTouchesDown`
// is a silent no-op: the native guard meant to block activation without
// touches checks the handler's state (Android `state == BEGAN`, iOS
// `_lastState != Undetermined`), and the first touch event reaches JS before
// that state is recorded, although a pointer is already tracked.
//
// Steps: press the box. Expected console: down, activated, up, deactivated.
// Bug: down, up, the gesture never activates.

export default function EmptyExample() {
  const manual = useManualGesture({
    onTouchesDown: (e) => {
      console.log('down, state', e.state);
      GestureStateManager.activate(e.handlerTag);
    },
    onTouchesUp: (e) => {
      console.log('up, state', e.state);
      GestureStateManager.deactivate(e.handlerTag);
    },
    onActivate: () => {
      console.log('activated');
    },
    onDeactivate: () => {
      console.log('deactivated');
    },
  });

  return (
    <View style={styles.container}>
      <GestureDetector gesture={manual}>
        <View style={styles.box} />
      </GestureDetector>
    </View>
  );
}

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  container: {
    flex: 1,
    alignItems: 'center',
    justifyContent: 'center',
  },
  box: {
    width: 160,
    height: 160,
    borderRadius: 16,
    backgroundColor: '#21a37c',
  },
});

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Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between dfda93b and 380166c.

📒 Files selected for processing (2)

• packages/react-native-gesture-handler/android/src/main/java/com/swmansion/gesturehandler/core/GestureHandler.kt
• packages/react-native-gesture-handler/android/src/main/java/com/swmansion/gesturehandler/react/RNGestureHandlerModule.kt

💤 Files with no reviewable changes (2)

• packages/react-native-gesture-handler/android/src/main/java/com/swmansion/gesturehandler/react/RNGestureHandlerModule.kt
• packages/react-native-gesture-handler/android/src/main/java/com/swmansion/gesturehandler/core/GestureHandler.kt

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📝 Summary

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Bug Fixes
  • Improved gesture activation when a touch pointer is already being tracked before the gesture begins.
  • Ensured gestures transition through the correct intermediate state before activation.
  • Prevented activation when no touch pointers are tracked or when the gesture is in an invalid state, helping avoid unintended state changes.

Walkthrough

The Android gesture handler exposes whether it tracks pointers. Synchronous activation begins an undetermined handler when it tracks pointers, then activates it if it reaches the began state.

Changes

Pointer-aware gesture activation

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Activation guard and pointer state packages/react-native-gesture-handler/android/src/main/java/com/swmansion/gesturehandler/core/GestureHandler.kt, packages/react-native-gesture-handler/android/src/main/java/com/swmansion/gesturehandler/react/RNGestureHandlerModule.kt	GestureHandler exposes hasTrackedPointers and removes recordHandlerIfNotPresent(). For activation requests, setGestureStateSync begins an undetermined handler that tracks pointers and proceeds to activate only if the handler is in STATE_BEGAN.

Priority: ⬇️ Low

Merge Risk: ⚪ Minimal · up to 38016

Android first-touch activation follows the intended state sequence. The change is mergeable after normal checks.

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 3

✅ Passed checks (3 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly describes the main change: allowing GestureStateManager.activate to work from the first onTouchesDown event on Android.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.

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[Copilot]

Copilot review overview

🟢 Approval recommended

The change is narrowly scoped, uses existing pointer-tracking state to gate activation, and the resulting state transition sequence (UNDETERMINED→BEGAN→ACTIVE) is consistent with existing orchestrator behavior.

Review effort: Lite
Findings: None

What changed in this PR

This PR fixes Android manual activation timing so GestureStateManager.activate() can succeed when called from the very first onTouchesDown, aligning native behavior with the documented “activate after receiving touches” contract.

Changes:

• Loosens the Android activation guard to allow activation when the handler has already started tracking at least one pointer (even if still UNDETERMINED).
• Ensures begin() is triggered before forced activation so onBegin is delivered prior to onActivate.

File	Description
packages/​react-native-gesture-handler/​android/​src/​main/​java/​com/​swmansion/​gesturehandler/​react/​RNGestureHandlerModule.kt	Updates the STATE_ACTIVE guard to accept pointer-tracking as the “has touches” signal and triggers begin() before activation.
packages/​react-native-gesture-handler/​android/​src/​main/​java/​com/​swmansion/​gesturehandler/​core/​GestureHandler.kt	Adds a hasTrackedPointers accessor to expose whether the handler currently tracks any pointers.

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Actionable comments posted: 1

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• 🪄 Fix CodeRabbit comments on this PR

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Inline comments:
In
`@packages/react-native-gesture-handler/android/src/main/java/com/swmansion/gesturehandler/react/RNGestureHandlerModule.kt`:
- Line 155: Update the final activation guard in the handler processing flow to
require handler.hasTrackedPointers in addition to the existing STATE_BEGAN
check. Ensure handlers with no tracked pointers do not reach
recordHandlerIfNotPresent() or activate(force = true), while preserving the
existing behavior for tracked pointers.

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