Element: touchstart event

Limited availability

This feature is not Baseline because it does not work in some of the most widely-used browsers.

The touchstart event is fired when one or more touch points are placed on the touch surface.

Syntax

Use the event name in methods like addEventListener(), or set an event handler property.

js
addEventListener("touchstart", (event) => {});

ontouchstart = (event) => {};

Event type

Event properties

This interface inherits properties from its parent, UIEvent and Event.

TouchEvent.altKey Read only

A Boolean value indicating whether or not the alt key was down when the touch event was fired.

TouchEvent.changedTouches Read only

A TouchList of all the Touch objects representing individual points of contact whose states changed between the previous touch event and this one.

TouchEvent.ctrlKey Read only

A Boolean value indicating whether or not the control key was down when the touch event was fired.

TouchEvent.metaKey Read only

A Boolean value indicating whether or not the meta key was down when the touch event was fired.

TouchEvent.shiftKey Read only

A Boolean value indicating whether or not the shift key was down when the touch event was fired.

TouchEvent.targetTouches Read only

A TouchList of all the Touch objects that are both currently in contact with the touch surface and were also started on the same element that is the target of the event.

TouchEvent.touches Read only

A TouchList of all the Touch objects representing all current points of contact with the surface, regardless of target or changed status.

TouchEvent.rotation Non-standard Read only

Change in rotation (in degrees) since the event's beginning. Positive values indicate clockwise rotation; negative values indicate counterclockwise rotation. Initial value: 0.0.

TouchEvent.scale Non-standard Read only

Distance between two digits since the event's beginning. Expressed as a floating-point multiple of the initial distance between the digits at the beginning of the event. Values below 1.0 indicate an inward pinch (zoom out). Values above 1.0 indicate an outward unpinch (zoom in). Initial value: 1.0.

Examples

Code samples for those events are available on the dedicated page: Touch events.

Specifications

Specification
Touch Events
# event-touchstart
Touch Events
# dom-globaleventhandlers-ontouchstart

Browser compatibility

BCD tables only load in the browser

See also