How can you increase the touch area of a button?

You can use several approaches:

Adding padding to the button content: In UIEdgeInsets contentEdgeInsets, you can set positive values to increase the visible area without changing the size of the UIButton itself. This does not increase the touch area, only the visual size of the content.

Changing the size of the UIButton itself:

Via frame:

button.frame = CGRect(x: button.frame.origin.x - 10,
                      y: button.frame.origin.y - 10,
                      width: button.frame.size.width + 20,
                      height: button.frame.size.height + 20)

Using Auto Layout, by adding padding to constraints or setting explicit sizes larger than the minimum required.

Creating a custom subclass of UIButton and overriding point(inside:with:): This method determines whether a point is inside the view, and by default uses the view's bounds. Overriding it allows expanding this area.

import UIKit

class IncreasedTapAreaButton: UIButton {
    // Padding to increase the tap area
    let tapAreaInsets = UIEdgeInsets(top: -10, left: -10, bottom: -10, right: -10)

    override func point(inside point: CGPoint, with event: UIEvent?) -> Bool {
        // Get the area inside which touches will be processed, considering the padding
        let increasedArea = bounds.inset(by: tapAreaInsets)
        // Check if the touch point is inside this increased area
        return increasedArea.contains(point)
    }
}

This method is the most flexible and precise for increasing only the touch area, without affecting the visual size of the button unless necessary.

Using a transparent UIView over or under the button: You can place a larger transparent UIView and add a gesture recognizer to it. The gesture handler will trigger, and in its action, you can invoke the button's action.

// Create a transparent View
let tapView = UIView()
tapView.backgroundColor = .clear
// Add the View to the screen, positioning it around the button with the desired padding
// ... (using Auto Layout or frames)

// Add a gesture recognizer to the transparent View
let tapGesture = UITapGestureRecognizer(target: self, action: #selector(handleTap(_:)))
tapView.addGestureRecognizer(tapGesture)

@objc func handleTap(_ sender: UITapGestureRecognizer) {
    // Your code to handle the tap, e.g., trigger the button action
    button.sendActions(for: .touchUpInside)
}

The best approach in terms of cleanliness and a direct solution to the task is overriding point(inside:with:) in a UIButton subclass.