Pull down to refresh

The BBC has released the BBC News iPhone app in the UK, having been held up for several months by the BBC Trust. Although overshadowed by the politics surrounding it, the app contains one interesting detail: an interaction known as ‘pull down to refresh’.

To update the news in the BBC’s app, you tap and drag the main content down, then release it. This interaction was first invented last October by Loren Brichter for what is now the official Twitter app. In the space of a few months, it has gone from relative obscurity to use by the largest broadcasting organisation in the world.

We take many interactions for granted. Dragging and dropping a file, double clicking an icon and scrolling down a web page seem so natural that we don’t think twice about them. It’s not often that new interactions appear and when they do, it’s even rarer for them to catch on so quickly. Don’t be surprised when you see it in the next app you download.

09/08/10 Joshua Lay said:

That's very cool! I really need to get myself new phone to have fun. I'm just wondering. Would a "shake up & down to refresh" interaction work?

06/09/10 Gemma Coward said:

Facebook mobile app does exactly this, proving that it's here to stay.

08/09/10 James Frazer said:

I think the "shake to refresh" function was around at the start but didn't catch on; besides, swiping the screen downwards is faster and more convenient than shaking your phone.

08/09/10 Philip Morton said:

On the iPhone/iPod Touch, shaking is already assigned to the Undo action in many applications, so I'm not sure it would be suitable for refresh. Certainly an interesting idea though.