Override Apple Siri remote Menu Button Default behavior

Question

According to Apple's guidelines, pressing the menu button on tvOS should return you to the previous menu, until you're at the top menu at which point it should return you to the OS menus. My question is, how do I prevent the default behavior of the menu button and stop it from returning to the OS menus, but then reactivate it when the user is at the top menu of my app?

Answer 1

You can register a tapGestureRecognizer and set allowedPressTypes = UIPressTypeMenu code like so:

UITapGestureRecognizer *tapGestureRec = [[UITapGestureRecognizer alloc] initWithTarget:self action:@selector(handleTap:)];
tapGestureRec.allowedPressTypes = @[@(UIPressTypeMenu)];
[self.view addGestureRecognizer:tapGestureRec];

Then whenever the Siri remotes menu button is pressed your handleTap method will be called, allowing you to add any custom logic you need. Just be aware that blocking the menu button from suspending your application on the root view controller can be a cause for App Store rejection.

You can get more information about detecting gestures here and about pressTypes here.

Answer 2

Swift version of @C_X's answer, which worked for me.

let tapGesture = UITapGestureRecognizer(target: self, action: "handleTap:")
tapGesture.allowedPressTypes = [NSNumber(integer: UIPressType.Menu.rawValue)]
self.view.addGestureRecognizer(tapGesture)

Swift 3 version:

let tapGesture = UITapGestureRecognizer(target: self, action: #selector(MyClass.handleMenuPress(_:)))
tapGesture.allowedPressTypes = [NSNumber(value: UIPressType.menu.rawValue)]
self.view.addGestureRecognizer(tapGesture)