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Pull to refresh 1:04
A 64-second explainer of Pull to refresh, narrated over the same demo you can try yourself.
Try the interactive Pull to refresh demo
What this video covers
Pull to refresh is the gesture - drag the top of a list downward and release - that reloads its content. It became a near-universal mobile convention because it's discoverable through experimentation, reuses a natural scrolling motion, and gives the user a direct, physical way to ask for the latest, with satisfying feedback as the content updates.
Pulling the list down and feeling it spring into a refresh is oddly satisfying - a physical gesture standing in for "show me what's new". That works because it's a convention you already knew and because the interface gave feedback the whole way down. The catch: someone who doesn't know the gesture sees no refresh button at all, which is why pull to refresh should be a shortcut, never the only way.
