The gestureRecognizers should not be automatically added to the frontView. First, this is not something one would expect to happen by simply invoking a method to get a gestureRecognizer, comments notwithstanding. Second, the gestureRecognizers are not automatically added to all frontViews. Only the current frontView at the time the method is first called. This leads to confusion, as developers might wonder why the gestureRecognizers stop working when they set a different frontViewController. Additionally, if the developer does not want to add the gestureRecognizers to the frontView, then there is no way to fetch the gestureRecognizers without having them get added. This forces the developer to fetch the gestureRecognizers, and then immediately turn around and remove them from the frontView. Ultimately not adding them by default provides a more consistent routine: fetch the gestureRecognizer(s) and add them to ever place I want, most often in viewDidLoad.