[iOS] `react-native-screens` v4.19.0 breaks the global back swipe gesture on pager views

[mozzius]

Environment

• iOS 26
• react-native-screens v4.19.0
• Any react-native-pager-view version (tested 6.8.0, 6.8.1, 8.0.0)

Description

I have filed the same issue with react-native-screens here: software-mansion/react-native-screens#3512
Since this is an issue with the interaction between these two libraries, I thought it was worth opening one here too.

After upgrading to react-native-screens v4.19.0, the global back gesture does not work if it's on top of a pager view. I would speculate it's due to software-mansion/react-native-screens#3420

Screen.Recording.2026-01-01.at.21.19.54_compressed.mp4

Expected behaviour: I am able to swipe back to the previous screen.

This is exactly the same problem as I have with #1006, except now it's happening on all versions

Reproducible Demo

https://github.com/mozzius/pagerswipe-repro

[mozzius]

Dug into it a bit, and it needs to respond to the new iOS26 system back gesture. This patch (for v6.8.0) fixes it

diff --git a/node_modules/react-native-pager-view/ios/RNCPagerView.m b/node_modules/react-native-pager-view/ios/RNCPagerView.m
index adfc7c6..366df60 100644
--- a/node_modules/react-native-pager-view/ios/RNCPagerView.m
+++ b/node_modules/react-native-pager-view/ios/RNCPagerView.m
@@ -498,6 +498,25 @@ - (BOOL)gestureRecognizer:(UIGestureRecognizer *)gestureRecognizer shouldRecogni
         return YES;
     }
 
+    // iOS 26+ full-screen back gesture (interactiveContentPopGestureRecognizer)
+    if (@available(iOS 26, *)) {
+        if (gestureRecognizer == self.panGestureRecognizer &&
+            otherGestureRecognizer == self.reactViewController.navigationController.interactiveContentPopGestureRecognizer) {
+            UIPanGestureRecognizer* panGestureRecognizer = (UIPanGestureRecognizer*) gestureRecognizer;
+            CGPoint velocity = [panGestureRecognizer velocityInView:self];
+            BOOL isLTR = [self isLtrLayout];
+            BOOL isBackGesture = (isLTR && velocity.x > 0) || (!isLTR && velocity.x < 0);
+
+            if (self.currentIndex == 0 && isBackGesture) {
+                self.scrollView.panGestureRecognizer.enabled = false;
+            } else {
+                self.scrollView.panGestureRecognizer.enabled = self.scrollEnabled;
+            }
+
+            return YES;
+        }
+    }
+
     self.scrollView.panGestureRecognizer.enabled = self.scrollEnabled;
     return NO;
 }

[mozzius]

cc @okwasniewski - I think the same issue affects v8.0.0